NEW YORK — The Coca-Cola Co. and its bottlers plan to invest an additional $3 billion in India over the next eight years to boost the soda giant’s stake in the rapidly growing market.
The world’s biggest beverage maker, whose brands include Minute Maid, Dasani, and Powerade, is seeing some of its biggest gains come from emerging markets.
In its first quarter, for example, Coca-Cola said its volume rose 20 percent in India, compared with a 2 percent increase in North America.
Including the new cash infusion, Coca-Cola said Tuesday that it now plans to invest $5 billion in India between 2012 and 2020. That’s more than double the $2 billion it has invested since re-entering the market in 1993.
Globally, Coca-Cola’s market share of carbonated soft drinks is 52 percent, compared with 21.4 percent for PepsiCo Inc., according to Beverage Digest.
Coca-Cola’s Thums Up — a spicier local soda it acquired in 1993 — and Sprite are the top-selling soft drink brands in India, each with 16.5 percent of the market, while its Maaza is the top-selling juice.
The company’s namesake Coca-Cola, meanwhile, has just 8.8 percent of the carbonated soft drink market, according to Euromonitor International.