Interesting India

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Capitalising on our attractiveness for MNCs
PepsiCo?s announcement of in-vesting an additional $500 million into its Indian operations should not come as a surprise. PepsiCo, after all, is in the same warp as most other FMCG and durables? majors in the world ? the western markets are saturated and growth is slow to come by. As a result, they are looking at developing nations, such as India, for future growth. In the US, for instance, soft drinks sales grew just 0.7% last year. In that sense, PepsiCo is still better off. It is growing at a healthy 8-9% every year. But The Coca-Cola Company, that owns four of the world?s five largest soft drinks brands, grew just 4.4% last year. Unilever is growing at 5-6%, as is Colgate-Palmolive. Of course, their base is much larger, but growth is still not as easy to come by as it is in the developing countries. In India, Pepsi?s business has grown four-fold in the past five years and it now hopes to put on the boosters, to triple its revenues over the next three years.
Story found here.

Source: The Financial Express