The Hindu Business Line : PepsiCo focusing on juice, water and nutritional foods

"We have zeroed in on three aspects that we think have the largest growth potential in our domain of operations," said Mr Sanjeev Chadha, CEO of PepsiCo India.

Growth capabilities

"Though we have already spoken about our intent to increase focus on the juices and nutritional foods and drinks categories, the other category that we believe to hold immense growth capabilities is water."

He added: "In water, we have further identified two growth areas, packaging innovations that we will implement on our existing water brand Aquafina. The second is introduction of value-added variants to our water portfolio. Under this, we have alternatives such as flavoured, mineral, nutrient and sports water in mind."

Mr Chadha also said: "Fruit juices and fruit-based drinks is another area that holds great potential for development. Besides adding other variants to our Tropicana brand, we are planning to create flavours that are relevant to Indian taste buds."

Create flavours

PepsiCo, which recently started operations in its first India-based R&D centre, plans to use its expertise to zero in on flavours for Indian taste buds.

With major expansion of its Tropicana brand, the company expects to outdo the current market leader, Dabur's Real brand, within three years.

The third and perhaps most important area of growth, according to the company, will be the introduction of nutritional beverages.

"We plan to launch certain healthy and wellness-oriented drinks that will be high on the nutrition count. For this, we are considering alternatives like soya milk-based drinks and other milk-based alternatives."

Expansion plans

On other expansion plans, the CEO said that the company is keen on acquisition of other brands.

"We are exploring certain alternatives in areas like energy drinks and coffee-based beverages that we are still not present in."

Global products

PepsiCo also plans to introduce several products from its global portfolio in the Indian market.

"The idea is to have at least 4-5 brands within 3-5 years that achieve the status of Pepsi. Currently, 65 per cent of our turnover comes from aerated beverages. We plan to expand our non-aerated beverage portfolio to the extent where the ratio of turnover contribution is equal at 50:50," said Mr Chadha.