India's cola wars heat up

AMERICAN soft drink giants Coca-Cola and Pepsico are stepping up their battle for India's estimated US$4.1 billion soft drink market, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.3 per cent between 2008 and 2012.

PepsiCo, the world's largest snack-food maker announced last week that it would invest US$5.5 billion in India by 2020 to bolster production, saying that it had only "scratched the surface" of the Asian giant's potential.

This followed an earlier move by arch rival Coca-Cola, the world's largest drinks maker that it intends to pump a total of US$5 billion between 2012 and 2020 to grow its business in Asia's third-largest economy.