Coca-Cola Co, the world’s biggest sodamaker, reduced the size of canned drinks by 7 percent in Hong Kong to rein in rising production costs driven by high raw material prices.
“The main driver is aluminum,” Kenth Kaerhoeg, communications director for Coca-Cola Asia Pacific, said yesterday in a phone interview in Hong Kong.
Coca-Cola and other firms are struggling with rising metals and fuel costs because of a global shortfall of materials. Aluminum prices have jumped 25 percent this year as power shortages in China and South Africa led to production cuts.
The drink cans were cut to 330 ml from 355 ml, and include Coca-Cola, Coke Light, Coke Zero, Coke with lemon flavor, Fanta, Sprite, Sprite Zero and Schweppes Cream Soda, Kaerhoeg said.
The new can is also the most commonly used size in the world, and the move would align products with those sold in Europe, Kaerhoeg said. He didn’t specify savings or say if sizes in the rest of Asia could be cut.
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