News
Ramadan: How we’re celebrating the holy month in Indonesia
27/04/2022
As we approach the end of the holy month of Ramadan, we sat down with Stephen Lusk, CCEP’s Chief Commercial Officer, to find out why it’s such an important time for our business.
What does Ramadan mean for CCEP?
First, it is an important time of year for many of our colleagues, customers, friends and partners - when fasting, worship and celebration sit alongside their daily lives.
It is also a particularly important time for CCEP in Indonesia. Our great drinks form a key part of family celebrations during Ramadan so it’s a key selling moment for our customers, and therefore a key moment in the year for our business.
What can you tell us about CCEP’s business in Indonesia?
Since the acquisition of Coca-Cola Amatil last year, we’ve been focused on growing our business in Indonesia.
Indonesia is the most populous country in South East Asia and the Pacific and accounts for nearly 25% of the region’s GDP. The country, and our business there, has huge potential.
We have over 6100 employees and 11 production facilities in the region. The vast majority of our business there - nearly 80% - is focused on small provision stores, cafes and restaurants.
Sparkling soft drinks makes up over 60% of our volume in Indonesia, with remaining volume coming from tea, juice, value added diary and water.
Sparking represents only 5% of the total non-alcoholic, ready to drink category in Indonesia. They’re normally reserved for special occasion like Ramadan. Water and ready to drink teas make up over two-thirds of soft drink volume in Indonesia.
What is our approach to marking Ramadan in the market in Indonesia?
Sparkling soft drinks are an important part of celebrating with family and friends during Ramadan. People drink more soft drinks and the volume of drinks we sell more than doubles compared to a normal month.
We want to build the fanbase of sparkling soft drinks by focusing on our key brands like Coca-Cola, Sprite, Schweppes and, local favourite, A&W Root Beer during the holy month.
We want to grow sparkling soft drinks by talking to consumers about enjoying our beverages at meal times and during breaks.
We also want to build our footprint in ready to drink tea through our frestea brand.
To make sure consumers can get our great drinks, we focus on increasing our deliveries to customers of all sizes, creating cross-category hampers for shoppers and dedicated displays and increasing stock at transport hubs for mudik season.
How do we get our products to consumers in Indonesia?
Indonesia has a unique and complex route to market, compared to our operations in other countries. This includes national or regional chains of large, small and medium side supermarkets, convenience stores and small cafes.
It also includes a much more disparate network of over 4.5 million large and mid-sized independent shops, kiosks and push carts. With these smaller outlets, shelf space is at a premium so our sales teams work hard over Ramadan to get the right products in the right place, and make them look great on the shelf.
What else is CCEP doing during Ramadan in Indonesia?
Charity is at the heart of Ramadan for Muslims across the world. At CCEP, we want to use this moment to give back to our communities. We’re working with a network of orphanages during the holy month to provide food and drink to children in their care to help them break their fast.