Coca Cola plans Rs 28K cr India investment

Beverages giant Coca-Cola said it, along with its partners, will invest about Rs 28,000 crore in India by 2020 on various activities, including setting up of new bottling plants.

This investment is higher by $3 billion from the previous announcement made in November 2011 for a period of five years to enhance its operations in India. “Coca Cola will invest $5 billion in India between now and 2020. This investment in India is a part of $30 billion globally planned by the company.

India aims to be among top five countries in Coca Cola’s markets. It is at present number seven,” Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent said. The investment, along with its partners, will go on increasing bottling lines, adding new bottling plants, enhancing back-end chain infrastructure as well as marketing

by the company, he added.

Kent said the current announcement by the company is $3 billion more than previous figure. “We have robust investment plans as we have examined our business here. Why are we increasing it? Because we are

absolutely confident this is the right decision considering the vast opportunities in India,” he added.

In line with its plan to double revenue globally by 2020, Coca Cola along with its partners had announced last year investments of $2 billion in India over the next five years to enhance its business operations, including setting up a new plant in the country.

PTI