As India battled an unprecedented heat wave, people looked for increasing ways to keep their cool. This was evident in the sales of beverages which was 1.37 times the last year’s same period sales – essentially a 37% growth YoY.
In this post, we will look at the sales of beverages in the winter months (November to February) and analyse their growth in the summer period (April, May). The average monthly sales of cold beverages increased to 1.66 times in the summer months as compared to the average in the winter months across India.
Sales Variations across States
India has varying weather across regions, and this accordingly has an impact on beverage sales. States in North India, where the heat wave is harshest saw the largest jump in offtake with Rajasthan, UP and Punjab leading the sales. Rajasthan saw the highest rise with 3.1 times the sales in the summer months as compared to winter sales.
Out with the Hot, In with the Cold
The customer is extremely spoilt for choice and can choose from a wide selection of various aerated drinks, sugared and non-sugar drinks, energy drinks etc. The data indicates that the customer has made a definitive switch to cool drinks to substitute for their hot drinks. While milk additive product sales have dropped, products like lassi and buttermilk have increased to 2.7 times and syrups & concentrate grew to 3.1 times as compared to the winter sales.
Given the challenging nature of summer, glucose powder and tablets have also seen a seasonal jump with the sales increasing to 5.5X times in the summer months.
Family pack of beverages (2L+) saw the largest jump with the average monthly sales increasing to 2.4 times YOY. As compared to the winter months, the biggest change was observed in Delhi and Punjab’s summer sales of family packs. Average monthly sales increased to 3.4 and 4 times respectively for these regions for the large sized beverages. Family packs were also seen to be part of the “stock-up” shopping missions where the sales grew 37% in the large baskets (where shoppers had >10 products).
