Newsletter
We know Varun Beverages as the company behind Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Sting. But now, it's adding something new to the fridge. The company is buying the value-added dairy beverages, juices and packaged drinking water business of Devyani Food Industries Kenya for $32 million (around ₹305 crore).
Why it matters: the company already bottles and sells PepsiCo drinks in Kenya. This deal gives it a ready-to-use manufacturing plant in Nakuru, spread across 52 acres, along with an existing distribution network.
Kenya isn't a random pick. It has one of the largest dairy industries in sub-Saharan Africa, contributing 14-17% of the country's agricultural GDP and supporting nearly 2 million farming households. As urbanisation and incomes rise, consumers are increasingly shifting from loose milk to branded dairy drinks, juices and packaged beverages.
More than Pepsi: for years, Varun Beverages has been seen as the company that bottles and sells PepsiCo brands. But that's quietly changing. In the last few months alone, it has expanded into snacks, partnered with Japan's Asahi to bring Calpis to India, strengthened its beer distribution business in Africa, and is now adding dairy, juices and packaged water to its portfolio in Kenya.
The strategy is simple: don't rely only on cola. Carbonated drinks remain seasonal and highly competitive, while categories like dairy beverages, juices and bottled water are growing rapidly and are consumed throughout the year.
Don't miss: the timing is interesting. As mentioned earlier, just a day earlier Varun partnered with Japan's Asahi Group to bring it to India. So now It has both the product pipeline and the manufacturing base to expand beyond fizzy drinks into dairy beverages.
