Bad news for Mukesh Ambani and Campa Cola as PepsiCo announces…, will achieve it in….

In India, PepsiCo faces tough competition from its traditional rival Coca Cola, and more recently Mukesh Ambani-backed Campa Cola, with the latter triggering a price war in the sector.

In a major challenge to billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s plan to revive the homegrown Campa Cola beverages brand, FMCG giant PepsiCo has announced its target of doubling its earning in India in the next five years. In a interview, PepsiCo India & South Asia CEO, Jagrut Kotecha said that the company considers India a major market and plans to double its revenue in the country over the next five years.

India will be PepsiCo’s ‘engine of growth’

According to Kotecha, India will be the engine of growth for PepsiCo” in driving its global revenue, as it ranks among the top three markets for the food, snack, and beverage multinational, where the company is experiencing double-digit growth.

“We believe India will be the engine of growth for PepsiCo to drive the top line. Yes, it’s not as big as North America because it is a lot more evolved category. Our per capita consumption in India is still very low, not only for us on beverage and food, but we would expect one of PepsiCo’s fastest growing economies to do that,” the PepsiCo CEO told news agency PTI.

New plants in UP, Assam

He said that PepsiCo has invested in greenfield plants in Uttar Pradesh and Assam, focusing on staying ahead of the demand curve, adding the company will not be “investment shy” in India and plans to open two more facilities, including one in the southern region.

Kotecha said PepsiCo has set up a green field plant near Mathura in UP and is going to start a new one in the North East at Assam by the end of this year.

PepsiCo’s India strategy

India is one of the “key anchor markets” for PepsiCo, the New York-headquartered food, snack, and beverage multinational, where it re-entered in the 1990s after a gap of 28 years.

“We have identified about 13 to 15 anchor markets for PepsiCo, of which India is there and the definition of anchor markets is where do we see our next five to seven years of incremental growth coming for PepsiCo globally and India being one of that,” Kotecha said.

PepsiCo ‘sits well’ with PM’s vision

According to Kotecha, PepsiCo “sits very well” within the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of 2030, being the top three economies in the world.

“It’s one of the most stable economies, growth engine, etc and hence, PepsiCo also has been in this country for almost 30 years, good, strong, fundamentals,” he said, adding “So, we need to double that, dial that up and start investing. We have been investing but continue to aggressively invest to ensure that we also take that opportunity.”

Currently, India ranks among the top 15 markets globally for PepsiCo but Kotecha expects the country to move up the ranks, though he refrained from sharing any specific projections.

Stiff competition from Coca Cola, Campa Cola

In India, PepsiCo faces tough competition from its traditional rival Coca Cola, and more recently Mukesh Ambani-backed Campa Cola, with the latter triggering a price war in the sector with its aggressive pricing forcing market leaders to compete with the Reliance-backed brand to retain their market share.

According to a recent report, initially, the impact on Coca-Cola and PepsiCo’s market share was low because Campa Cola lacked distribution reach, but that has increased gradually in recent times.

The Indian beverages market is valued at around USD 12 billion and is growing with a CAGR of 10-11 per cent.

(With PTI inputs)