Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola’s Fanta Wins India’s Youth and Market Share
Coca-Cola’s Fanta has secured over 50% market share in India’s orange-flavored CSD category, driven by strategic localization, youth appeal, and digital-first campaigns. The brand’s growth has been robust, with five consecutive years of double-digit expansion, and its presence now spans nearly two million retail outlets nationwide. Vinay Nair, VP of Franchise Operations at Coca-Cola India & Southwest Asia, credits Fanta’s rise to “flavour-led innovation, digital agility, and regional alignment.” Fanta’s success is seen in its ability to blend nostalgia with modern digital culture, such as its strong association with joy and celebration, especially during festivals like Holi. Its latest campaign, Fanta Mangta, starred actor Kartik Aaryan, and tapped into Gen Z digital behavior with a meme-led, creator-driven campaign.
Leão Scales Up Green Yerba Mate to Ride Wellness Wave
Brazilian beverage leader Leão, a Coca-Cola joint venture, is ramping up production capabilities and entering the green yerba mate segment to meet rising demand for healthier beverages. A R$20 million investment will modernise plants in Paraná, boosting efficiency and enabling a 5% production increase this year. Leão dominates Brazil’s toasted yerba mate category and entered the green segment in February 2025 with products tailored to chimarrão and tereré drinkers. The green mate market is still fragmented, presenting acquisition and growth potential. CEO Correa outlined ambitious targets, including doubling EBITDA within five years. He says innovation is central and claimed new products now account for 40% of EBITDA and 20% of revenue. The company sees international potential, with initial U.S. exports showing traction beyond nostalgic Brazilians. Future ambitions include making yerba mate a globally recognised super-ingredient, similar to açaí or guaraná.
From Names to Personas: Coca-Cola Evolves ‘Share a Coke’ in China
Coca-Cola is reviving its iconic “Share a Coke” campaign in China with a shift from custom names to personality-themed bottles. Aimed at Gen Z, the campaign features 20 bottle personas like “The Foodie” and “The Extrovert,” designed to foster connections and spark social interactions rooted in identity and self-expression. Led by Ogilvy Shanghai, the campaign is integrated across experiential, digital, and influencer channels. Pop singer Silence Wang is brand ambassador and announced the launch that featured kite displays at the 42nd Weifang Kite Festival, OOH support in urban destinations and social media. Commentators say transitioning from name-based to personality-based design lets Coca-Cola align with Gen Z’s preference for nuanced, emotion-driven branding, which helps create shareable moments.
Coca-Cola’s Fizzion Bridges Creativity and AI-Driven Automation
The Coca-Cola Company introduced Fizzion, an AI design system created in collaboration with Adobe. This initiative aims to solve a major challenge for the company, ensuring consistent yet localized creative across 200 countries and more than 200 brands. With Fizzion, traditional brand guidelines become embedded within creative assets themselves, enabling automated adaptation and faster rollout of campaigns across diverse markets. Built into Adobe’s design suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign), Fizzion learns from real-time designer workflows and translates brand decisions into adaptive StyleIDs. These act as intelligent rule sets, guiding how brand elements behave across channels, languages, and platforms—speeding up production while reducing errors. The company is positioning Fizzion not as a replacement for creative talent, but as a support that lets teams focus on storytelling while automating repetitive executional tasks, and hopes it offers a scalable solution to the demand for rapid, localized content delivery consistent with brand identity.
Coca-Cola Enters South Africa’s Functional Drink Market with Charged
Coca-Cola South Africa has added Charged to its beverage lineup—a caffeinated, strawberry-flavoured sparkling drink aimed at consumers seeking refreshment and energy. Already launched in India, Vietnam, and Nepal, Charged offers fizz combined with a distinctive berry taste in a distinctive 500ml can that features thunderbolt visuals designed for shelf standout. Targeted at South Africa’s increasingly health- and energy-conscious consumers, Charged aligns with global trends favouring functional drinks that blend taste and purpose.
Danone
Danone Strengthens Bet on Nigeria Amid Multinational Retreat, Sees White Space Opportunities
Danone is deepening its investment in Nigeria, defying a wave of multinational exits spurred by currency volatility and inflation. With many global firms such as GSK, Unilever, and P&G scaling down or leaving the market due to Nigeria’s economic reforms and naira instability, Danone is taking a contrarian stance, citing recent macroeconomic improvements and looking to the long-term potential of Africa’s largest consumer base. Danone, known locally for its Fan Milk brand, has invested in northern milk distribution infrastructure to enhance cost-efficiency and boost margins. With the exodus of key competitors, the company sees white space in core categories and in reaffirming Danone’s commitment to the country, its regional chief Christian Stammkoetter highlighted opportunities for innovation and route-to-market expansion.
Nestle
Nestlé Scales Regenerative Coffee in the Philippines Through New Partnership
Nestlé Philippines signed a strategic partnership with Sunfood Marketing Inc. (SMI), a subsidiary of the SF Group of Companies, to expand sustainable Robusta coffee farming in Northern Cotabato. This initiative aligns with Nestlé’s Nescafé Plan, which focuses on long-term farmer empowerment, responsible sourcing, and climate resilience. Through this collaboration, SMI will apply agritech expertise to improve yields and productivity, while Nestlé will provide training on regenerative agriculture, environmental sustainability, and business skills. The goal is to increase local sourcing of green coffee beans and support the self-sufficiency of the Philippine coffee industry. This marks Nestlé’s first growership partnership and highlights its push to secure resilient, sustainable supply chains in the face of climate volatility and rising coffee demand.
Other Companies
V Energy Launches First Slow-Release Energy Drink in ANZ, V Riise
V Energy has launched a new sub-brand, V Riise, across Australia and New Zealand, introducing the region’s first slow-release energy drink. Developed to meet rising consumer demand for longer-lasting energy, V Riise uses isomaltulose, a low-GI carbohydrate that provides a steadier energy release when combined with fiber, natural caffeine from tea, and real fruit juice. The drink is available in two lightly sparkling flavors—mandarin and blackcurrant—in 330ml cans. According to V Energy’s R&D Chief Ruth Muller, the inclusion of isomaltulose is a “game-changer,” enabling the brand to differentiate itself in an increasingly competitive category. The company cites research showing that two-thirds of consumers experience mid-day energy dips and are actively seeking more sustained energy solutions.
Asahi Launches Yeast-Based Milk Alternative in Strategic Diversification
Asahi Group Japan has moved into the dairy alternative sector with “Like Milk,” a yeast-based milk alternative developed using the company’s expertise in yeast from its brewing operations. The product marks Asahi’s first move into non-dairy beverages in its 135-year history and reflects its broader pivot towards health-focused, alcohol-free innovation in response to declining alcohol consumption in Japan. Launched on crowdfunding platform Makuake for consumer testing, Like Milk is not plant-based but derived from yeast extract powder, positioning it uniquely in the alt-dairy space. It’s allergen-free under Japan’s strict 28-allergen food safety list and is lactose-free, broadening appeal to health-conscious, allergy-prone consumers. Asahi sees significant potential in Japan’s ¥108 billion alt-dairy market and views this launch as both a product and branding experiment.
Suntory Invests £6M To Lower Plastic Waste, Emissions
Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I unveiled a £6.3 million investment to revamp Lucozade Energy packaging as part of its broader sustainability strategy. The move introduces a new half-sleeve design that covers only 50% of the bottle height, reducing sleeve weight by 60%—equivalent to 956 tonnes of plastic annually. The redesign also improves recyclability, allowing clearer identification and sorting at recycling centers. This packaging overhaul follows similar transitions for Ribena and Lucozade Sport and required installing advanced sleeving equipment across three production lines at Suntory’s Coleford facility. The six-week implementation involved required reengineering of bottle design and manufacturing components. Suntory estimates additional environmental benefits, including water savings comparable to an Olympic pool every 289 days. The packaging revamp aligns with the company’s target of a 30% reduction in scope 3 emissions by 2030, where packaging currently accounts for 15.5%.
Suntory Cuts Sugar by 30% Without Sacrificing Taste
Suntory Beverage & Food Europe (SBFE) achieved a 30% reduction in added sugar across its beverage portfolio since 2015, transforming over 300 drinks to align with evolving consumer and regulatory demands. This milestone, supported by a €2 million R&D facility near Paris, highlights SBFE’s strategy of science-backed reformulation and ‘deep consumer empathy’, leveraging the company’s innovation model, “Gemba with Seikatsusha,” that requires observing people in real-life scenarios to see them as individuals with emotional ties to products. The company says this enabled it to preserve brand equity in markets like the UK, where drinks like Ribena and Orangina carry nostalgic weight. Alongside reformulation, Suntory introduced clearer labeling and created new low-sugar variants to support consumer choice. SBFE plans to reach a 35% sugar reduction by 2030.
Tial and Neymar Jr. Target Gen Z Wellness with Sugar-Free Hydration in Brazil
Brazilian beverage company Tial is launching a new fruit and coconut water drink, “Pley by Ney,” co-created with soccer star Neymar Jr. The beverage, free of added sugar and offered in tropical flavors, marks Tial’s shift toward health-conscious consumers and lifestyle branding. The initiative follows Tial’s recent acquisition of juice brand Do Bem from Ambev, further strengthening its market position. Initially launching in 250 ml cartons priced between R$5 and R$6, “Pley by Ney” will expand to 1-liter formats by year-end. Domestic production and distribution will be led by Tial, with licensing and international branding handled by Fun Brands. A projected R$60–70 million marketing push will support visibility in Brazil. Tial is banking on Neymar’s cultural cachet to scale the product across Latin America and the U.S. and puts expected first-year revenue of up to R$100 million.
Wahaha
Wahaha’s Supply Chain Stumble Sparks Consumer Skepticism
Wahaha, China’s leading bottled water brand (16.79% market share), is facing a consumer backlash after it confirmed outsourcing some production to Jinmailang Foods, its cheaper competitor. Sharp-eyed consumers noticed Jinmailang listed as the manufacturer on bottle labels, triggering confusion and criticism over brand integrity and quality control. The issue escalated when Wahaha acknowledged the deal but claimed it ended in April 2025 due to quality control failures on Jinmailang’s part. This public distancing was perceived as damage control and betrayal, igniting heated discussion on Weibo that ranked #2 on the platform’s Hot Search list. The incident comes amid a transition period for Wahaha, led by new CEO Zong Fuli, who is restructuring production by closing outdated facilities and investing in modernization. Outsourcing was a tactical move to meet surging demand during this transition, but mismanaging the narrative has exposed the brand to reputational risk.
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