Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverage (HCCB), the Coca-Cola’s bottling unit in India, is taking control over the company’s Georgia tea and coffee business in the country.
Starting October HCCB will handle the manufacturing and distribution of Georgia across India. Georgia is the tea and coffee brand from Coca-Cola Company.
The company was quoted by The Economic Times as saying: "With this move, HCCB will expand its existing product portfolio and now offer both hot and cold products to end consumers."
HCCB CEO and regional director - Bottling Investment Group T Krishna Kumar was quoted by the publication as saying: "This move has been brought forward on account of our strong belief in the products being offered by Georgia and the need to expand the business exponentially in the years to come."
Kumar added that the collective objective of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company is to focus on widening the reach of Georgia by taking advantage of the its wide network.
The new initiative will see HCCB vice president for commercial beverages S Giri Sunder heading the Georgia business. He will oversee HCCB's sales and distribution in order to enhance the market share of Georgia in India.
At present, Georgia pre-mix is produced at the Hershey India in Bhopal, a co-packer plant of HCCB.
With this change, the company plans to position itself as a one-stop beverage provider with an expansive range of sparkling, juice, tea, coffee and still products.
Georgia through its own vending machine offers a range of hot and cold beverages including fresh brew coffee, hot instant flavored tea, coffee, iced tea, and cold coffee, The Business Standard reported.
The brand has more than 5,000 vending machines across India and has been functional since more than 10 years.
