Brazil and Mexico will be among the new countries to offer the drink, joining markets such as the UK, Ireland, Spain, Hungary, Japan, Australia and South Africa.
Coca-Cola Energy contains caffeine from naturally derived sources, guarana extracts, B vitamins and no taurine – ‘all with the great Coca-Cola taste and feeling that people know and love.’
Expansion plans for 2019
Coca-Cola Energy debuted in April, offering an energy proposition in both sugar and no sugar variants.
“The initial results are encouraging,” said James Quincey, Coca-Cola CEO, in the company's Q2 earnings call this week. “In Spain, the first market where Coke Energy was launched, [it] has already captured 2% share of the energy category in modern trade and it has achieved similar sales for last outlet as the market leader with strong repeat levels that indicate good consumer acceptance.
“We're taking everything we've learned and applying these insights as we rapidly scale Coke Energy across our system. We are currently in 14 countries, and by the end of 2019, we expect to have Coke Energy available in 20 markets.”
Coca-Cola Energy 250ml can
- Contains caffeine from naturally-derived sources, guarana extracts and B vitamins
- Taurine-free
- Sweetened with sugar; or Acesulfame K / sucralose for Zero Sugar
- 105 kcal and 26g sugar per 250ml can (1 kcal / 0g sugar for Zero Sugar).
(Coca-Cola Energy - Ireland)
What about the US?
Any potential US launch, however, appears to be further down the line. Quincey says Coca-Cola will use this year to learn how consumers respond to the beverage in a variety of different market conditions.
“Purely from a rollout perspective and a tactical perspective, in something like this, it would probably suit us to have those learnings and have a 2.0 for the US - whatever tweaks that may be, whether it's tweaks in the formulation, tweaks in the graphics, tweaks in the marketing mix, tweaks in the execution approach... because it's all about accelerating the learning cycle and driving that forward.
“So that will be the conceptual approach on how we want to get it done.
"And that's kind of will be true whether it's Coke Energy or Coke with coffee. Every time we've done it, we've tried to make sure we learn from the cycle of the 1.0 or the 2.0 before we go to the next set of countries.”
The path for Coca-Coca Energy's rollout was cleared last month when an arbitration panel ruled the drink did not infringe its 2015 agreement with Monster Energy.
