Ricardo Fort (left), vice-president (marketing) of Coca-Cola India, with Vikas Chawla, vice-president (franchise bottling operations), in Calcutta on Tuesday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, Aug. 17: Coca-Cola is giving final touches to its three-year investment plan for India.

The company, which has invested $250 million in the last three years, will submit its proposal to the global management for approval by November, a senior company official said.

“It (the plan) should be ready within the next one or two months,” Ricardo Fort, vice-president (marketing) of Coca-Cola India, said.

The Coca-Cola group has already committed an additional investment of $50 million for a bottling plant in north Karnataka. Till now, the company has invested $1.1 billion in India.

Coca-Cola, which has its head office in Atlanta in the US, has two types of bottling operations in the country. While the company owns some plants, others belong to private entities.

Bengal deal

Bengal Beverages Pvt Ltd — one of the authorised bottlers of Coca-Cola in the state — plans to set up a manufacturing facility at Dankuni before the festive season.

The company envisages an investment of Rs 65 crore for the production of fruit beverages under the Coca-Cola brand. A bulk of the investment has already been made.

Coca-Cola today forayed into the dairy segment with the launch of Maaza Milky Delite in the city. “Initially, Maaza Milky Delite will be be made available to the consumers in Calcutta followed by a nationwide launch later this year,” Fort said.

Milk solids, an ingredient for the product, will be sourced from Karnal in Haryana, while the processing will be done in the N.R.Goenka led-Diamond Beverages’ Taratala unit.

The brand has a varied portfolio, which includes fizzy drinks such as Thums Up, Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta and Limca, juices such as Maaza and Minute Maid, Kinley packaged drinking water and Georgia tea and coffee.

Coca-Cola will not expand its sugar-free drink portfolio. The company produces the sugar-free drink — Coke Zero — which is imported.