Tuesday Brief

1 Friends, you know that Coke and Pepsi are controlling the soft drinks market all over the world. These giant corporations do the business of soft drinks with the help of their Bottling Partners or franchisees. In this type of arrangement, the principal company supplies the soft drink concentrate to their Bottling Partners, who then produces the soft drink and markets the same. These principle companies supply the concentrate by taking full payment in advance before despatch. The system is continuing for decades with no compromise on the advance payment. As concentrate is the most essential ingredient, the bottling partners need them for producing soft drinks. Selling concentrate to the franchise bottling partners has been a profitable business for the principal companies.

In India both Coke and Pepsi are present and they have a major share in the soft drink market. As per the information for the first time, the two soft drink companies are supplying the concentrate on credit to their bottling partners. This move comes after weak sales in two consecutive summer seasons.

The soft drinks makers have seen sales fall by a fourth in the peak April- June quarter this year compared with pre-Covid numbers. With hotels, theatres, and restaurants shut, and grocery stores operating with restricted timings has also affected the sales to a larger extent. Restrictions are now being slowly eased with a respite in the second wave of the pandemic, but the industry does not expect any immediate turnaround in the market. The early onset of monsoon in some parts of the country and slow reopening of malls and restaurants despite lockdown easing will also delay recoveries.

The April- June quarter accounts for more than half of the Rs 20,000 Cr annual market in the packaged beverage sector. That is the main reason the principal companies are extending credits to tide over the slump in the sales in the peak April-June quarter for two seasons. Crisil, a credit rating firm, released last month said revenues of soft drink companies, during fy 2020-21, could decline by over 10% over the previous year.

These two US Based companies dominate India’s non-alcohlic packaged beverages industry. While both stage recoveries in Jan-March quarter od 2021, on the backing of improved home consumption and graded unlocking from the second half of last year. the second wave of Covid hit the country right in the peak season. Both the companies had experienced increased sales and revenue during Jan-March 2021, as compared to last year in the same period.

2 French Tennis Federation who organised the French Open tennis tournament, was blessed with sunshine through most of its 14 day period, but other than this nothing went in their favour. The Covid pandemic restrictions reduced the number of spectators allowed on the grounds, which cut deeply into their revenue, just as the federation needed to start paying back hundreds of millions of Euros borrowed for renovation work.

But the biggest story to come out was the withdrawal of Naomi Osaka, world no. 2, following a disagreement with French Open and other Grand Slam tournament management over the media duty. Osaka’s initial announcement mentioned a need to preserve her mental health and said she will be not participating in the post-match press conference to keep her mental health in a balanced position. She was fined $ 15,000 for skipping the post-match press conference. The management of 4 grand slam tournaments issued a stern statement that warned of escalating penalties, including a potential expulsion from the tournament if she continued to abstain. Osaka withdrew the next day, explaining on social media that she had experienced long spells of depression since winning the US Open in 2018. Afterward, she announced that she would take an indefinite break from the tour.

Several former players blamed the officials, saying that they should have shown more sensitivity and avoided publicly threatening to penalise Osaka. The French Tennis Federation Chief said that “ he was concerned about players’ mental health. She raised a real problem, a real topic for discussions” He further added that “ I do not think we would have gone to a tougher sanction because we understood the situation. But it’s the rule. The rule is there for all the players. Perhaps, we will change the rules, and then the players come to press conferences if they want to. It is going to a serious problem then not many will come”.

This is a serious issue, the management should understand the psyche of players also. After playing the match for few hours then they will have to face the press, and many of the players may not be comfortable answering some questions. Now suppose a player after losing a 4-hour five-setter thriller- in the press conference if some reporter asks the player some questions regarding why he did play in a certain way at some point, now the player, who is physically and mentally drained, will not be in a position to answer this question. Now the player who has won the match will be happy and he may answer the same question differently. So press conference is a double edge sword, whether players like it or not. In my opinion, the management of four grand slams and other major tournaments should always think that players can also go through some depression period, instead of penalising the players they should be considerate. Here Osaka has clearly informed the management well in advance that she will not attend the post-match press conference due to her mental condition, the management should have respected her decision, but instead, the management chose the confrontation path to show her who is the boss.

It is generally seen that the people who are managing the sports always think they are bigger than players, and the players are duty-bound to follow the rules. But that the fact is they are complementary to each other because management can not survive without players and vice versa.

Waiting for your views and comments.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

15^th June 2021