PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta pushes for faster growth in India, says country among top markets for beverage giant

Global beverage giant PepsiCo’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ramon Laguarta, who was on India tour last week, has reportedly told the leadership in the country that business needs to grow faster, a media report said. Laguarta, who assumed the role of CEO of PepsiCo in October, succeeding India-born Indra Nooyi, said that India is among the top markets for the global beverage giant and the company needs to keep the momentum, The Economic Times reported. “Ramon Laguarta came to India, one of PepsiCo’s top global markets, to get a first-hand view of the country… Ramon spent his time meeting with our leadership team, customers and partners,” PepsiCo India spokesperson was quoted as saying by the newspaper. Laguarta, who is the sixth CEO in PepsiCo’s 53-year history, has held a number of executive and general management roles in his 22 years at the firm. Since September 2017, Laguarta has served as President of PepsiCo, overseeing global operations, corporate strategy, public policy and government affairs. [caption id=“attachment_5617771” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A file photo of Ramon Laguarta. Reuters[/caption] Last month, PepsiCo reported ‘strong double-digit organic revenue growth’ in the third quarter of 2018 from India and other AMENA (Asia, Middle East and North Africa) zone markets including China, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. PepsiCo has reported 1.5 percent growth in its global profit and 4.9 percent growth in its organic revenue growth. While for its year-to-date (nine months), AMENA zone - which also includes India - witnessed 34 percent increase in its operating profit. This is “primarily reflecting the net revenue growth and planned cost reductions across a number of expense categories, as well as the net impact of refranchising our beverage businesses in Thailand in 2018 and Jordan in 2017, which contributed 15 percentage points to operating profit growth,” said PepsiCo. In the snacks segment, PepsiCo is also driving growth of Doritos, the brand owned by Frito-Lay, its wholly- owned subsidiary. “We are driving growth in Doritos internationally, whether through expansion to new markets like China, where the brand just celebrated its first anniversary since launch, to innovation in existing markets like India, where we launched Doritos Heat Wave,” former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi had said. Recently, Jubilant FoodWorks roped in PepsiCo as the new beverage partner for Domino’s Pizza India. The company so far had an exclusive arrangement with Coca-Cola in the country. As part of the partnership, the PepsiCo portfolio of carbonated beverages of Pepsi, Mountain Dew, 7Up and Mirinda along with Lipton Ice Tea will be sold across all Domino’s Pizza restaurants in India, it said in a statement. --With inputs from PTI