Pepsi Has A New CEO For Its India Market

By Sam Lewis

D. Shivakumar will head strategy to deploy company’s $5 billion investment in India

Pepsi, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of beverages and snack foods, announced on Monday, Dec 9 that D. Shivakumar will take the reins as CEO of the company’s India region, effective immediately. Shivakumar worked as the head of Finnish communications company Nokia’s India segment for nearly eight years.

The announcement of Pepsi India’s new CEO comes just under a month after Pepsi’s CEO, Indra Nooyi, announced the food and beverage maker would be investing about $5 billion in its business in India by 2020. In Pepsi’s India business, Shivakumar will oversee every portion of the company’s offerings, including its namesake brand, Frito-Lay, Tropicana, Quaker, and NourishCo — a joint company comprised of Pepsi and Tata Global Beverages.

Shivakumar replaces Manu Anand as Pepsi’s CEO and chairman of its India region. Anand, who served as Pepsi’s India segment president, left the company in June to join Cadbury India as its managing director. Since Anand’s departure, Pepsi India has been without a leader, but has been overseen by Sanjeev Chadha, CEO of Pepsi AMEA (Asia, Middle East, and Africa).

Shivakumar left Nokia in March of 2013 as head of its global business, overseeing Nokia in 90 countries and after making India one of the most profitable markets for Nokia. He also spent 14 years with Hindustan Unilever, where he grew the Lipton tea business. Shivakumar also spent three years with Phillips Consumer Electronics, where he essentially doubled the company’s revenue. Nooyi believes appointing Shivakumar to head Pepsi’s India segment will put the company in a position for success in the coming years. “Shivakumar is one of India’s most respected business leaders,” says Nooyi in the company’s press release. “He has a proven ability to take billion-dollar businesses to the next level by maximizing innovation, execution, and collaboration.”

India remains a lucrative market for Pepsi, as it looks to continue its focus on rural areas of the subcontinent. Shivakumar will look to further Pepsi’s single-serving nutrient fortified snacks initiative in rural India along with expansions to India’s more than 40 Pepsi plants which create nearly $160 million in annual sales of Pepsi and Frito-Lay products.

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