Soft drinks flowing freely in Indian homes
MUMBAI: Cold beverages, which include soft drinks, squashes, powdered mixes and packaged juices, have seen in-home penetration rise to 47% in May as against 38% in 2019, a survey showed. In-home penetration refers to the number of households in the survey that consumed the product. Average household consumption of soft drinks too has increased to just over 7 litres annually from 6.5 litres in 2019.This 47% in-home penetration, according to marketing data and analytics company Kantar, which shared the household panel data exclusively with TOI, is significantly better than any 12-month period before the pandemic. "Whatever struggle the sector faced in the summers of 2020 and 2021 was wiped out by strong performance in 2022 and a reasonably good 2023. There have been important strides that t...