The world’s largest beverage company, Coca-Cola, said that the India business was affected by unseasonal rains in the June quarter, even as the firm was looking to the future with optimism in its fifth-largest market by volume.

While Coke reported a 2% growth in unit case volume in Asia-Pacific in the June quarter, led by India, China, Thailand and Vietnam, James Quincey, company chairman and CEO, admitted in an earnings call on Wednesday that “bad weather” had impacted operations in India during the period. Coca-Cola follows a January to December accounting year.

The April-June period is an important time for most beverage companies in India owing to the summer season, which contributes to 50% of total sales, according to industry estimates. This year saw unseasonal rains keep temperatures low in the June quarter hurting demand, especially in the north, which contributes around 30-35% of sales for beverage companies, according to sector experts.

Globally, Coca-Cola raised its annual revenue and profit forecasts for 2023 on Wednesday as net revenue grew 6% in the June quarter, on the back of higher pricing.  But Quincey indicated that the strategy for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region would be volume-led rather than price-led. India is part of the APAC region.

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“The Asia-Pacific region has a number of emerging markets that have a fast pace of growth. However, pricing power in India and China, for instance, is not as strong as in Japan, where price points are higher. The emphasis here (India/China) is on driving volume growth,” he said about the strategy for the two markets in the future. China, for perspective, is Coca-Cola’s third-largest market globally.

The company has also been building what it describes as a ‘de-seasonalisation” strategy in India, where the focus is on getting more from its core product portfolio across seasons.

In the June quarter, for instance, Coca-Cola said that it drove share gains in the non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages (which includes juices and juice drinks) in South Korea, India, Australia and Thailand.

While carbonated drinks Thums Up and Sprite are billion-dollar brands for Coca-Cola India in terms of retail sales, Maaza is on its way to becoming a billion-dollar brand, according to  top executives at the firm.

The company is also driving in-home and out-of-home consumption in India using a combination of affordable price points, multiple pack sizes and different channels of availability.