Coca-Cola plans to invest US$ 50m more in BD

In an attempt to strengthen its presence in Bangladesh, global beverage giant Coca-Cola plans to invest US$ 50 million more in the country over the next three years.

It will also roll out a string of new products during this period, aiming to expand its operation to tap Tk 30 billion beverage market, said T Krishnakumar, president of Coca-Cola's Southwest Asia and India business unit, in an interview with the FE recently.

He talked about a series of future steps of his company which, according to him, would benefit both 'the company and the local community'.

"We will invest $50 million more over the next three years. As a market, we see here a great opportunity to connect. We are looking at really consistent and steady investment in Bangladesh market," the senior executive of the multinational company said while unveiling its future investment plan.

"Bangladesh is a market in which we strongly believe in. We invested US$ 74 million in the last three years - one of the largest FDI in food and beverage sector. Our bottlers invested another $ 30 million. So in total, we invested $ 104 million in this country in last three years."

About the future marketing strategy of the US-based soft drink maker, he said the company was concentrating on developing a portfolio exclusively for the people of Bangladesh which will help meet their demands.

"We want to create a portfolio exclusively for Bangladesh. The idea is to really give consumers a choice," he added.

This portfolio will comprise an array of products from three sources- global, regional and local. Explaining the composition, he said, "We will bring products from our global portfolio and from our regional portfolio which is Asian. And we will formulate products using home-grown produce."

The company is carrying out research to develop the Bangladesh portfolio and some more arrival will be announced within 'next 8 to 10 months'.

This time around, Mr Krishnakumar came to Dhaka to launch 'Thums Up Charged' to celebrate 55 years of operation of the global leading beverage maker in Bangladesh.

"Coca-Cola across the globe is accelerating forward towards becoming a total beverage company by broadening its product portfolio and entering new product categories," he said.

This strategy of growing the portfolio while leveraging the strength of the core brands as its foundation will play a key role in accelerating growth going forward, he added.

Before launching Thums Up, the US soft drink maker has introduced Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Coke Zero and Sprite Zero, and recently launched a spice-flavoured drink, Rimjhim. Last year, it launched Kinley to tap the big bottled water market.

Responding to a query, he said company's another popular brand, Limca, which gained huge popularity in India and other countries, will show up in Bangladesh within 8-9 months.

The soft drink giant is also planning to raise the number of retail coolers up to 50,000 in the country within a short time.

This move would benefit both the vendors and the people, he hoped.

When asked whether the company had any plan to launch 'ethnic drinks' like it did in many parts in the region, he revealed that the company is exploring two options for formulating home-grown drink.

"We are aware of Bangladeshi people's love for mango. So, we are exploring the possibilities to formulate a drink which will be produced using local mangoes," he added.

In this connection, he said the second option they were assessing is to launch a soft drink using local guavas.

The company's strategy is to understand the local people and their taste and "we are conducting research" on it, he mentioned.

It runs its operation in Bangladesh through two bottlers-- for northern zone it has its own bottling plant at Bhaluka, Mymensingh, and for southern zone, the bottler is Abdul Monem Ltd.

Mr Krishnakumar also said his company had made tremendous efforts to benefit the local community through various campaigns and projects.

Its corporate social responsibility encompasses various areas -- education, environment, women empowerment, sanitation, disaster preparedness and agriculture promotion.

Coca-Cola has initiated projects to work with local farmers to educate them on quality farming so that they can get more yields. Besides, it has launched training programmes for women to turn them into entrepreneurs through setting up business centres, he said.

Asked how he, being an engineering graduate, switched to business, Krishnakumar quipped: "From my childhood I had plans to do something which would impact society and people, and I found that in business operations and that is my occasion. Through my work, I can benefit both the company and the society and that gives me immense pleasure".

He, however, said that he never dreamt of launching a company of his own. "That is completely out of my plan," he said.

Terming recent development of Bangladesh 'awesome and amazing', he said the progress Bangladesh had made during the past decade was spectacular.

"I came here frequently as I was personally engaged in erecting our bottling plant at Bhaluka. So, I have found that in the last one decade, the country has transformed drastically. The aura of development is found in every corner," he said.

Krishnakumar also said his company had not faced any kind of difficulties in doing business in Bangladesh.

"We have found all the stakeholders very cooperative and we got full support from all the regulators," he added.

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