ITV

Tag: Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages

  • Indobevs names Vikas Kumar co-founder to lead growth

    Indobevs names Vikas Kumar co-founder to lead growth

    MUMBAI: Indobevs, one of India’s fastest-growing alco-bev companies, has elevated Vikas Kumar to co-founder, signalling a bold step in its expansion drive. In his new role, Kumar will steer operational strategy, boost manufacturing muscle, and tighten supply chains to support Indobevs’ ambitious growth plans.

    Kumar, who joined Indobevs seven years ago, has been the architect of the company’s operational backbone. He built robust manufacturing systems, streamlined supply chains, and implemented scalable processes that have helped the company grow nearly 40 per cent year-on-year.

    With more than 20 years of experience across Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, United Biscuits and SC Johnson, Kumar brings expertise in supply chain management, plant engineering, project execution and process optimisation.

    “Indobevs has always stood out for bold ideas and quality focus,” Kumar said. “As co-founder, I aim to make our operations resilient, agile and future-ready, ensuring we scale responsibly while delivering exceptional value to customers.”

    Co-founder Geetika Mahandru added, “Vikas’ vision and operational insight have been key to our growth. Under his leadership, we are well-positioned to expand into new markets and continue offering premium, consumer-focused experiences.”

    Indobevs is expanding both domestically and internationally, with greenfield facilities under construction in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. New launches include the liqueur Bonga Bonga and multiple whisky variants, all under Kumar’s operational oversight.

    Founded in 2007, Indobevs has built a diverse portfolio that includes Brocode, Big Bro, Bro Red, Brose, Bonga Bonga Mystery Liqueur, Enso Japanese Whisky, Eden Blended Malt Whisky, Wingman Blended Malt Whisky, God’s Own Cognac and Tom & Mew Gin. The company continues to push bold flavours and contemporary drinking experiences.

  • Siddharth Suri returns to Moët Hennessy India as managing director

    Siddharth Suri returns to Moët Hennessy India as managing director

    MUMBAI: The champagne is flowing again. Siddharth Suri has been appointed managing director of Moët Hennessy India, marking a homecoming to the LVMH-owned spirits house where he previously spent over five years. Most recently business head for away-from-home, restaurant and travel retail at Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, Suri brings extensive leadership credentials from across the luxury and fast-moving consumer goods sectors.

    His career spans more than 20 years in sales, marketing and business development. At Diageo India, where he worked for four years until early 2024, he served as national head of strategic key accounts and country lead for Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific emerging markets, driving international sales from Dubai.

    Suri’s earlier tenure at Moët Hennessy included roles as sales director for India travel retail and domestic markets, overseeing operations across India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. He also held senior positions at Pernod Ricard India, including head of region operations and head of sales operations in New Delhi, and at PepsiCo India, where he rose to general manager for market development in Mumbai and zonal sales head for Maharashtra and Goa.

    A graduate of the International Management Institute with a postgraduate diploma in sales, distribution and marketing operations, Suri has built a reputation for transforming and scaling businesses across India and emerging markets.

  • Hemant Rupani to head Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages as CEO

    Hemant Rupani to head Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages as CEO

    BENGALURU:  Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB), India’s largest Coca-Cola bottler, has named Hemant Rupani as its new chief executive, effective 8 September. Rupani takes over from Juan Pablo Rodriguez, who is moving on to a new role within the global Coca-Cola system.

    Rupani, a seasoned operator with stints across FMCG, telecom, and tech, currently serves as Mondelez’s business unit president for southeast Asia, overseeing operations in Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. He joined Mondelez in 2016 and has held leadership roles in India and Vietnam, rising to his current post in 2022.

    The appointment comes at a pivotal time for HCCB, following Coca-Cola’s move in December 2024 to sell a 40 per cent stake in Hindustan Coca-Cola Holdings Pvt Ltd—the parent company of HCCB—to the Jubilant Bhartia group.

    A mechanical engineering graduate from Regional Engineering College, Jaipur, with an MBA in marketing from FMS Delhi, Rupani began his career in 1997 at ICI India. He has since worked with PepsiCo, Infosys, Vodafone, and Britannia, steadily climbing the leadership ladder across sectors.

    He will report to the HCCB board and is expected to steer the company’s next phase of growth, amid rising investment in India and intensifying competition in the beverage market.

    The Coca-Cola Co, listed on NYSE as KO, operates in over 200 markets and employs more than 700,000 people through its global bottling partners.

  • Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages launches PET-free Rath Yatra drive with Puri Municipality and NGOs

    Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages launches PET-free Rath Yatra drive with Puri Municipality and NGOs

    MUMBAI: In a city where devotion spills into the streets each year, this time the bottles won’t. Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB) in partnership with Puri Municipality and several civic bodies has flagged off the ‘Used PET Bottle-Free Rath Yatra 2025’ initiative to tackle plastic waste during the iconic annual chariot festival in Puri, Odisha.

    The campaign was formally unveiled on 16 June in the presence of Hon’ble deputy chief minister of Odisha Parida; Minister of Housing and Urban Development Krushna Chandra Mahapatra; and other senior officials including Puri Municipality executive officer Satyabrata Sahu (ACS) and Abhimanyu Behera.

    Targeting the swelling crowds expected between June 27 and July 5, the effort builds on the momentum of last year’s drive, aiming to significantly reduce plastic litter with city-wide collection and public engagement. The programme will deploy more than 180 trained volunteers and install 200 PET collection bins across high-footfall areas like Swargadwar Beach, Puri Railway Station, and Badasankha.

    “At HCCB, we believe real change happens when businesses, communities, and the government come together to work towards one goal. The Rath Yatra brings together people from all over the country, and with that comes a shared responsibility to care for the city that hosts them. Through our ‘Green Sweep’ initiative this year, we will be working closely with civic partners to set up strategic collection points, deploy trained volunteers, and introduce creative engagement tools like street plays to raise awareness. We’re proud to be part of this effort alongside Anandana, The Coca-Cola India Foundation, the Odisha government and aim to make the Puri Rath Yatra free of used PET bottles”, said HCCB chief public affairs and sustainability officer Himanshu Priyadarshi.

    The project is being executed in collaboration with Anandana (The Coca-Cola India Foundation), the Odisha Development Management Programme (ODMP), and the Y4D Foundation. The municipal partnership includes awareness-building drives like plogging activities and a PET collection rally held earlier this month. These efforts aim to educate locals and tourists on responsible PET disposal and segregation.

    “Managing plastic waste during high-footfall events like the Rath Yatra in Puri is a shared responsibility and requires collective action. Through PET collection points, volunteer-led engagement, and awareness outreach, we are humbled to play a role in making responsible disposal easier and more accessible for everyone attending”, said Coca-Cola India and southwest Asia VP, public affairs, communications, sustainability Devyani R L Rana.

    The initiative will also feature live street plays and help desks manned by trained vendors to ensure correct usage of the disposal infrastructure, especially in temple zones and beach areas. Volunteers will double as on-ground educators, encouraging visitors to sort their used bottles correctly into designated PET bins.

    The campaign officially flags off on 26 June, a day before the main festival begins, and underscores a rare feat—blending religious fervour with environmental action. If successful, it may just inspire more pilgrimages to go plastic-free.

  • Kasturi Paladhi & her new Coca-Cola communicatios journey

    Kasturi Paladhi & her new Coca-Cola communicatios journey

    MUMBAI: It’s been three months since Kasturi Paladhi joined Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages as head of external communications and social media, bringing fizz to the firm’s public affairs, communications and sustainability team.

    “Consider this my official ‘better late than never’ announcement!” Paladhi wrote  on social media, describing her first three months as “nothing short of a roller coaster ride” while “living the coke side of life.”

    The communications veteran appears particularly happy  about joining the integrated PACS team (public affairs, communications and sustainability) focused on building corporate reputation. She thanked her boss Himanshu Priyadarshi for the “jump start into the world of FMCG”.

    Paladhi brings a bottle full of experience to the role, having previously served as assistant vice president at Protean eGov Technologies and head of public relations at CoinSwitch. Her longest stint was at Xiaomi India, where she spent over three years leading PR and communications.

    The communications pundit’s career has fizzed with variety. She previously spent brief periods at Black Shark, MSLGroup and two charitable organisations—Charities Aid Foundation India and Genesis Foundation. Her early career included a three-year stretch at Genesis Burson-Marsteller and a two-year gig as campus radio jock for Fever 104 FM.

    With her postgraduate diploma in public relations from Xavier Institute of Communications and background in English literature from Miranda House, Paladhi appears well-equipped to keep Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages’ messaging as refreshing as its beverages.

  • Annapurna Vishwanathan joins Airbus as VP head of IM & Digital

    Annapurna Vishwanathan joins Airbus as VP head of IM & Digital

    MUMBAI: Airbus has appointed Annapurna Vishwanathan as vice president, head of IM & Digital, India and south Asia. She previously served as CIO at Cummins India and has worked at Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, GE Digital, and GE Corporate in various digital and technology-focused roles.

    At Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, she was head of digital, managing technology initiatives. At GE Digital, she was senior director of product software engineering, overseeing global product development and critical systems. She also worked on digital transformation at GE Corporate as IT transformation manager.

    Her earlier experience at GE Corporate includes roles as senior team manager for sourcing systems, IT PMO for global operations finance, and corporate audit staff. She began her career at Atos Origin as a trainee programmer and was part of GE’s Information Management Leadership Program (IMLP).  

  • Coca-Cola aims $2.5 bn target in India by 2020

    Coca-Cola aims $2.5 bn target in India by 2020

    MUMBAI: Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB) has announced its plan to become a $2.5 billion FMCG company by 2020. The company’s plan includes manufacturing and selling a wide range of beverages and modifications to its operating structure. It is also apportioning more resources to its frontline and field, both financial and human. This includes setting up of the premium division to service customer requirements around niche and premium beverages – smartwater, frozen fruit desserts, mixers and tonic water etc. and amalgamating the existing alternate beverages division to the mainstream distribution system.

    HCCB has achieved significant scale in the sale and distribution of an extensive range of juices under the Minute Maid and Maaza brands and also sparkling and dairy products. As a part of its growth plan, the company aims to open 1 million new outlets by 2020. It currently distributes its products in 2 million outlets across 25 states.

    The 2020 plan focuses on being consumer and customer centric, driving revenue growth, building a strong and agile system that has efficiency as its core and digitising the enterprise and unlocking the power of associates (employees).

    In order to better flex and respond to changing consumer demands, HCCB will now operate under seven zones instead of the current five and will also reorganise its corporate centre resources to serve in the zones and factories. The company will have a leaner corporate office and a much-strengthened sales and supply chain organisation, thereby creating several hundred new jobs.

    HCCB expects to fill most of these new jobs from within. The re-organisation will, however, make a few existing jobs redundant, the incumbents of which will be encouraged to apply for the new jobs that have been created.

    “In my time as CEO, I have focused on listening to our employee base,” says Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages CEO Christina Ruggiero. “It was very clear from our research, conversations and market data that today we are not structured in a way that allows us to fully leverage our scale and market capabilities. Changes of this nature take time to seep in, but our associates are committed to ensuring that HCCB is key fixture in India’s consumer landscape and delivering the growth that we know is possible in India.”

    By refining the operating structure and simplifying processes, HCCB solidifies its investment in India’s future with an infrastructure capable of favourable long-term impacts.