“The leadership change is on the cards and likely to be announced in the coming months. It is just a matter of time,” one of the executives said, requesting not to be identified.
Kovoor, senior vice-president and general manager, beverages at PepsiCo, has been in the current role since January 2022. He has had a three-decade long association with the maker of Pepsi and Mountain Dew fizzy drinks, Tropicana juices, Lays snacks and Doritos tortilla chips, in various leadership operating roles in Asia-Pacific, China and New York. He had moved back to India after 18 years, and is also responsible for creating the company’s long-term sustainability strategy for the India business.
Before taking up this role, he was senior vice-president, International Away From Home, at PepsiCo’s global headquarters in New York.
ElSheikh, who hails from Egypt, has been leading the India unit since 2017. He is the first expat to lead PepsiCo India.
“Kovoor has been identified for the role to succeed ElSheikh, who is expected to move to a global role, and comes at a time when soft drinks and packaged foods are becoming intensely competitive businesses,” said a second executive. “There are newer, larger players such as Reliance Consumer, a slew of direct-to-consumer brands and, most importantly, the resurgence of smaller regional brands which are increasingly posing threats to national brands.”
Bottling Ops
ElSheikh led the national refranchising of the company-owned bottling operations in southern and western regions to Ravi Jaipuria-owned Varun Beverages Ltd (VBL) in 2019, to drive synergies of scale and operational productivity. Prior to that, VBL managed the franchise bottling of PepsiCo’s businesses in the northern and eastern regions.
ET’s queries emailed to PepsiCo remained unanswered till press time.
PepsiCo reported revenue of Rs 8,128 crore for the year ended March 2023, up 29% year-on-year, with packaged foods and beverages reporting broad-based double-digit growth. The growth came on the back of stronger out-of-home demand and pickup in rural demand amid increasing electrification and distribution expansion.
The company sells concentrate to its bottling partner VBL, which bottles and manufactures the multinational’s soda drinks Pepsi, Sting and Mountain Dew, Tropicana juices and Aquafina water in India. VBL is responsible for 90% beverage sales volume of PepsiCo India. The listed VBL also has franchise territory rights for Nepal, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
