NO SUGAR PLEASE: CITIES DRIVE SPIKE IN DIET SOFT DRINKS

Coca-Cola Co. last week provided some evidence of the urban Indian's growing propensity to swap sugary drinks for sugar-free variants—"a record-breaking 2.5 million-unit cases" of its "no-sugar" Thums Up XForce sold in just three months.

- Suneera Tandon & Sowmya Ramasubramanian

NEW DELHI/BENGALURU:

Coca-Cola, which is the world's largest beverage company, its closest rival PepsiCo Inc., and Reliance Consumer Products, which revived the iconic Campa Cola two years ago as Campa, all have zero-sugar variants catering to India's growing obsession with counting calories. With consumers lapping up these "healthier" fizzy drinks, beverage makers have been able to expand their product lines with zero-sugar or low-sugar variants at different prices without needing separate bottling investments. According to researcher Mintel Group's Global New Products Database, Indian non-alcoholic beverage brands introduced more products with "minus" claims—such as low-sugar or no-sugar—than "plus" claims between July 2019 and June 2024. In the five years to May this year, the number of products with 'low sugar' and 'reduced sugar' claims surged 483%.