By Emeka Nze
Which way Coca-Cola Nigeria? This is the question in the minds of market watchers, as the market leader and soft drink giant, Coca-Cola HBC is experiencing hard times in Nigeria due to decline in sales volume and patronage.
According to Coca-Cola HBC, volume grew by 8.8 percent in developing markets and this was driven by Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic but in Nigeria where it has its largest market in Sub-Sahara Africa, it experienced a decline.
The fall in its market segments in Nigeria is blamed on the harsh economic and competitive business environment triggered by inflation, unemployment, currency depreciation and intense competition which combined to negatively impact the purchasing power of the average Nigerian, resulting in drop in patronage.
Thus, products and trademark brands like Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero variants, Sprite and Fanta were negatively affected, and compounded and worsened by price increase in response to inflation and high exchange rate, despite positive results in sales of water, juice and energy.
The parent company, Coca-Cola HBC along with its bottler in Nigeria, Nigerian Bottling Company, made allusion to this fact when it disclosed in its 2018 full year result that group volume increased in all emerging markets by about 4.2 percent with 4.3 percent growth in all other countries where they have their presence, except in Nigeria.
Nigeria has always maintained the position of highest sales volume in Africa due to its large population and economy, making Nigeria the biggest Coca-Cola market, coming after Russian Rouble, another cash cow of the global soft drinks giant, enjoying attractive returns on investment.