Sprite has jumped into Coca-Cola India’s top three soft drink brands, joining ThumsUp and Kinley. Sprite sales surged 41.7 percent to 1.7 billion litres in 2021 and are expected to surpass 1.5 billion litres in 2022. Sprite will contribute 23.4 percent of Coca-Cola India’s soft drink volumes in 2022. The soft drink's success is due to the lime-lemon flavour, where ‘nimbu pani’ (lemonade) is a traditional summer drink.
“Sprite has gained a lead over rival PepsiCo India’s lemon-lime carbonates brands, 7 Up and Mountain Dew. The sales of 7 Up are expected to read an estimated 520 million litres, and Mountain Dew is set to cross the one-billion litres mark in 2022,” said Bobby Verghese, Consumer Analyst at GlobalData.
Sprite’s achievements can be credited to rolling the soft drink out in small packaging sizes, where the mass-market pricing appeal boosted consumption frequency. A 250ml bottle at INR20 is considered more affordable than a 300ml can at INR40.
“Cola-Cola India has expanded and penetrated more relevant sales channels, allowing Sprite to gain a dominant position with a 35 percent share in India’s non-cola sparkling soft drinks segment, far ahead of its competitors*. The Indian non-cola sparkling segment is expected to grow by 29 percent in 2022 year-on-year, driven majorly by Sprite’s performance in Q3 2022," said Swati Polavaram, Consumer Analyst at GlobalData.
