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Whenever we talk of the Indian cola space, we generally discuss how Mukesh Ambani’s Campa is ravaging the markets 🙏🙏 But what’s even more interesting is how much is changing with Coca-Cola’s India bottling ops. Let me explain bit by bit. .. First is the much-covered aspect of Coca-Cola moving to an asset-light form in India. - It’s presently in the 4th leg of selling its bottling plants (under HCCB) to Indian entities - In addition, to achieve value unlocking, it’s heading for a mega IPO in the near-medium term - In line with this, it has also brought in Jubilant Bhartia Group, which is a direct rival of Pepsico’s primary bottler in India - Jaipuria Group But, beyond this, two of its largest bottlers in India, Kandhari and Ladhani Groups, are on totally opposite tracks. .. Kandhari is already Coca-Cola’s exclusive bottling and franchise partner in six states and three UTs. It’s also doubling down on Coca-Cola’s prospects in India, opening massive new bottling plants and announcing new projects. It is also buying HCCB’s existing plants, and management openly says that it’s ready to buy more when and if HCCB is ready to sell. Also, it has just completed the buyout of HCCB’s bottling plant in Gujarat for Rs 2k crore and is set to operationalise a massive new bottling plant in J&K before the end of this month. Thus, Kandhari is going all in on Coca-Cola. .. But, then there is Coca-Cola’s largest independent bottler in India, Lucknow-based Ladhani Group’s SLMG. And SLMG’s management has openly stated in the media that “opportunities in Indian markets are starting to dry up”. Thus, it’s working on a global expansion of the beverages bottling and franchising business while also diversifying into wealth management and renewables. .. Thus, while Coca-Cola is itself bringing down skin in the game, and its biggest Indian bottler is openly stating that opportunities are drying up in Indian markets, Kandhari is probably seeing things very differently, probably with a much longer-term strategy in place. Thus, it would be interesting to see how Coca-Cola’s business develops in India in the coming years. A lot’s changing after all. What do you think? And did you know all of this?