The bottling arm of Coca-Cola in India, Hindustan Coca-Cola tied up with State Bank of India – the country’s largest lender – to enable digital business transactions for its 2.6 million and 5000 distributors.
Reportedly, the bank would initiate the retailers in the process of digitisation with its digital payment options like Buddy P2P, Buddy Merchant, App and SBI Pay.
Arundhati Bhattacharya, SBI Chairperson, told reporters that retailers would be given loans based on their actual turnovers. She further added, “We would train the retailers not only in our product but also about the loans that they could possible access. I am sure we would be able to get all of these people who are today dealing in cash to the digital payment.”
Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Bottling Investments Group regional director for South Asia T Krishnakumar said, “While all of our payment to suppliers and more than 90 per cent of our collections from our partners are digitised, we propose to extend this facility to every retailer in the marketplace.”
He said that the move will substantially reduce the dependence on cash and that the company’s retail chain ecosystem – of over 2.6 million retailers and 5000 distributors – will be strengthened through digital payment solutions in business transactions.
He further added that the process will be rolled out in a phased manner from February 1.
