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Varun Beverages | The PepsiCo bottler whose profits are decided by where it puts its plants

2026.09.19

Article summary

Varun Beverages (VBL), headquartered in Gurugram, is a PepsiCo bottler and one of the largest franchisees outside the US. As part of the RJ Corp group, it sits in the same capital family as Devyani International (KFC, Pizza Hut). Revenue for the fiscal year ended December 2025 was ₹21,685 crore (1 crore = 10 million rupees), up from ₹20,008 crore the prior period; its fiscal year ends in December. It manufactures and sells Pepsi, 7UP, Mirinda, Mountain Dew, Tropicana, Sting, and more, operating in India as well as in various African countries. Soft drinks carry a high share of transport cost, and where plants are placed and how far they can distribute determines profitability, so building its own plants and distribution network has been the source of its competitiveness. It holds no brands of its own, focused entirely on making and distributing.

This article is based on what we could verify As of September 19, 2026 This page is based on the disclosures and news reports from each company that we were able to confirm as of that date. Amounts in the text follow the notation commonly used in India, with ₹1 crore = 10 million rupees, and yen figures are approximations calculated at a little over 1.7 yen to the rupee. Store counts, funding raised, and results at Indian companies change over short periods, so when making a business decision, please check the latest information in primary sources such as each company's own announcements.

Varun Beverages (VBL) is a bottler that makes and sells PepsiCo's carbonated drinks and bottled water in India and overseas. It is one of PepsiCo's largest franchisees outside the United States, and as part of RJ Corp it sits in the same ownership group as Devyani International (KFC and Pizza Hut).

Company profile

Item	Details
Legal name	Varun Beverages Limited
Headquarters	Gurugram (Haryana)
Business	Bottling and distribution of PepsiCo products
Revenue	₹21,685 crore (year ended December 2025 / approx. 377 billion yen). The year ended December 2024 was ₹20,008 crore
Fiscal year end	December (out of step with the March fiscal year of most Indian companies)
Main brands handled	Pepsi, 7UP, Mirinda, Mountain Dew, Tropicana and Sting, among others
Listing	Listed on the BSE and NSE

Beverages carry a high share of transport cost

Soft drinks are mostly water by content. They're heavy and bulky relative to their low unit price, so transport cost cuts deeply into profit. Profitability changes with how many kilometers a plant can distribute to, and it's often cheaper to build another plant for a distant region.

VBL has maintained its relationship with PepsiCo since the 1990s and holds bottling rights across a wide area of India as well as in various African countries. Building its own plants and distribution network has been the source of its competitiveness in this industry.

Revenue for the fiscal year ended December 2025 was ₹21,685 crore, up from ₹20,008 crore the prior period. The energy drink Sting has grown, and overseas operations are also expanding. Its fiscal year ends in December, so care is needed when comparing it with Indian companies whose fiscal year ends in March.

It holds no brands, focused entirely on making and distributing

A bottler doesn't handle product planning or brand advertising. It makes the product to PepsiCo's recipe and sells it in an assigned territory. In exchange, how well it runs plant utilization and delivery efficiency shows up directly in profit.

Devyani International, which runs KFC and Pizza Hut, sits in the same capital family, giving it a structure where even the beverages served inside those restaurants can be kept in-house.

Points for Japanese companies

For selling beverages in India, the choice comes down to holding bottling and distribution in-house or outsourcing to a bottler like this. VBL is exclusive to PepsiCo and won't take on another company's product, but it serves as a benchmark for understanding what kind of plant layout and distribution network India's beverage business runs on.

Concretely, its capital investment offers a benchmark for how many plants are needed to reach a given number of cities and roughly what investment per plant looks like. This becomes material for a Japanese beverage maker deciding whether to build its own plant or outsource.