A nationwide shortage of Diet Coke is creating an opportunity for India’s direct-to-consumer zero-sugar beverage brands to win new customers as supply disruptions leave multinational soda makers short on shelves this summer.
With demand for low-calorie drinks rising during the peak summer months of April and May, newer beverage companies are using the disruption to attract consumers who may not find their usual diet cola, betting that temporary shortages could translate into repeat purchases, industry executives told Mint.
For many of these startups, including Paper Boat Zero, Chinni Kum, Zyro, and Jimmy's, the disruption has been less severe because a large part of their portfolio is sold in PET bottles rather than aluminium cans.
Ankur Bhatia, founder of Jimmy’s, said the company’s bottle-based packaging has given it a ‘tactical edge’ because shortages in aluminium cans have worsened as beer and soft drink makers compete for the same production capacity. “The can-making lines are the same. PET bottles like ours can move fast,” he said. The nationwide shortage has affected both tier 1 and tier 2 cities.
However, the window for these D2C brands may be narrowing. Despite the current retail vacuum, smaller players face a steep 40% goods and services tax (GST) and a 25% rise in raw material costs for those relying on cans. Whether these short-term gains can survive the return of global supply chains only time will tell.
Bhatia said Jimmy’s zero-sugar range has become its largest-volume category within a year of its launch and now contributes about 25% of revenue. “The challenge right now is how fast one can supply. Consumers are not looking for offers. They are just looking for an abundance of supply,” Bhatia said.
Varun Beverages Ltd, PepsiCo’s largest franchise bottler in India, said its exposure to aluminium cans remains limited, with cans accounting for less than 2% of its overall sales volume.
“Our aluminium can sales is less than 2% for us. So it's very, very small,” Raj Pal Gandhi, wholetime director, Varun Beverages, said in a post-fourth-quarter earnings call with analysts on Monday. He said that the company has tied up enough supply “to more than cover our 2% volumes and maybe a little higher,” helping it avoid any meaningful disruption from the shortage.
More flavours, more choice
The company is also betting that variety can help convert cola drinkers. While Diet Coke remains a single-flavour product, Jimmy’s zero-sugar range includes mango, peach, and lemon flavours, with four more variants in production. “Consumers may not want cola all the time. They may want zero-sugar mango or lemon with the same zero-sugar promise,” Bhatia said.
He said the drinks are seeing demand both as standalone beverages and as cocktail mixers. “People who earlier mixed rum with Diet Coke can now pair white spirits with Jimmy’s flavours, but they are also having it neat. Either way, demand increases,” he said.
Smaller brands using cans are also seeing higher consumer trials. Bengaluru-based Pepping said shoppers who cannot find their preferred diet drink are increasingly willing to experiment with newer alternatives. “Diet Coke has a very strong brand, so it is hard to directly replace that. But when it is out of stock, people at least end up trying other products,” said co-founder Prateek Maheshwari.
Unlike bottle-led brands, Pepping still relies on aluminium cans, forcing it to manage the shortage more closely. Maheshwari said the startup navigated the disruption by forecasting summer demand early, locking in production before shortages worsened, and tightly managing inventory across quick-commerce and offline channels. “We did a very thorough prediction of our demand and worked out our sales plan with all our major channels. We were also lucky that we did the majority of our production on time,” he said.
Maheshwari said availability has become critical in quick commerce. “In that case, availability becomes the winner. We try to run a very efficient supply chain so that our product is always available and consumers can at least try it,” he said.
Diet Coke rivals
Pepping, a two-year-old D2C zero-sugar brand, sells probiotic wellness shots and prebiotic fizzy drinks, with the latter contributing nearly 70% of revenue. The company said its larger-format sparkling drinks are benefiting from a wider consumer shift toward healthier beverages, particularly among younger urban buyers. “A familiar format like flavoured soda, done healthier with lower calories and cleaner ingredients, is finding a lot of value with consumers,” Maheshwari said. Prebiotics are non-digestible food fibres that boost gut health.
The broader category remains small, but it is expanding rapidly. “The zero-sugar segment still reaches only about 1.3% of bottled soft drink-consuming households in India, but the buyer base has grown at an exceptional 98.1% compound annual rate over the last three years,” said K. Ramakrishnan, managing director for South Asia at Worldpanel by Numerator, which tracks retail buying behaviour.
Ramakrishnan said that within the segment, The Coca-Cola Co. accounts for nearly half of household penetration, while PepsiCo is present in more than 20% of households, underscoring how concentrated the category remains.
Sugar-free and low-sugar product launches in India have grown to represent 21% of the category as consumer demand for healthier options surges, according to market intelligence firm Mintel. Nearly half of energy drink buyers now prefer low-sugar variants, with the preference especially strong among health-conscious Gen Z shoppers.
Still, the opportunity may be temporary. Maheshwari said aluminium costs have risen 20-25% as suppliers are diversifying sourcing to China and Southeast Asia after disruptions in global packaging supply chains. Jimmy's Bhatia also said carbonated zero-sugar drinks continue to attract a 40% GST, making it harder for healthier alternatives to scale profitably.
