PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta meets PM Modi, reaffirms long-term commitment to India

New Delhi: PepsiCo Global CEO and Chairman Ramon Laguarta, on a three-day visit to India, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and discussed the company's long-term commitment to the Indian market.

This is the second visit by the global chief of the snacks and beverages major to India in the last six months, reiterating the importance of India as a market.

Laguarta is accompanied by members of the company’s global executive committee during this visit.

"Yesterday, our Chairman & CEO Ramon Laguarta was honored to meet the Prime Minister in New Delhi to discuss strengthening PepsiCo’s long-term commitment to India and exploring opportunities for collaboration in areas such as manufacturing, sustainability, innovation, and community development," PepsiCo said in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday.

This was Laguarta’s first meeting with the Prime Minister, even though he has been heading PepsiCo’s board for nearly seven years.

PepsiCo India CEO Jagrut Kotecha also attended the meeting.

For PepsiCo, India is one of the "anchor markets" where it is committed to investing for growth.

The company is investing in the two new plants: a foods plant in Assam and a concentrate plant in Madhya Pradesh. PepsiCo has also made significant investments in its greenfield facility for snacks near Mathura in Uttar Pradesh.

The meeting comes in the backdrop of the new GST rates, where the government has reduced the duty from 12 per cent to 5 per cent on the food products, including snacks. This benefits PepsiCo’s key brands such as Lays, Kurkure, Cheetos, and Quaker Oats.

However, in the beverage GST rates were raised from 28 per cent to 40 per cent by clubbing the sin tax of 12 per cent. PepsiCo, which operates with brands as Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Mirinda, UP, Sting, Aquafina, Tropicana and Slice like many other brands reported a decline in beverages business in the June quarter.

PepsiCo's India Holdings Pvt Ltd's consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 9,096.62 crore in 2024.