Varun Beverages had a strong quarter. Revenue jumped 21% year-on-year while India volumes expanded 14.4% despite unseasonal rains in March disrupting the peak pre-summer stocking period across North and East India.
Brokerage firm Nuvama Institutional Equities has a ‘Buy’ rating on the stock with a price target of Rs 600. The report stated that El Niño-driven heatwaves are expected in the first half of CY27, and this should push summer beverage demand higher, making Varun Beverages the best placed to capture it.
Varun Beverages: Expansion strategy
But the quarterly performance and seasonal outlook are only part of the picture. Varun Beverages has expanded its operations over the past three decades. The company now accounts for over 85% of PepsiCo’s beverage volumes in India, compared to about 45% in CY16, and operates across 10 countries.
The company’s growth comes amid rising competition from Reliance Consumer Products, which is scaling its Campa portfolio. Separately, PepsiCo has identified India as a key market within its international business, reporting 9% growth in Asia-Pacific food volumes in Q1 CY26, led by India and China.
Varun Beverages’ big land grab: South and West India
VBL’s most consequential single move came in 2019, when it acquired franchise rights for PepsiCo’s territories in South and West India, such as Gujarat, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, plus five union territories. In one transaction, the company went from a predominantly North and East India operation to a genuinely national one.
Prior to this, between 2017 and 2018, VBL had been systematically absorbing PepsiCo’s own previously franchised territories, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand, along with the manufacturing plants that came with them. Each acquisition brought new plants, new territories and a slightly larger grip on the national distribution network.
Varun Beverages – Beyond cola, expanding the product shelf
For most of its history, VBL was synonymous with carbonated drinks. That began to change in January 2018, when the company entered into a strategic partnership with PepsiCo to sell and distribute the Tropicana juice portfolio, including Tropicana 100%, Delight and Essentials, alongside Gatorade and Quaker Value-Added Dairy, initially across north and east India.
A dedicated greenfield facility in Pathankot, Punjab, was planned to manufacture these products, described at the time as the first fully backwards-integrated facility in India to produce the complete range at a single location, as per the company’s website.
The company has also moved into snack foods. In 2022, VBL commenced production of Kurkure Puffcorn at its Kosi plant in Uttar Pradesh for PepsiCo, and separately entered an agreement to distribute Lays, Doritos and Cheetos in Morocco.
According to the Nuvama report, in Q1CY26, management flagged strong momentum in newer categories during its conference call. The dairy portfolio is growing 70% YoY, Nimbooz at 50–60% YoY and Tropicana PET bottles at 100% YoY. The company’s mid-priced energy drink Adrenaline Rush, positioned at Rs 60, is performing ahead of internal expectations. Sting Classic, a newly launched variant, received a strong early response within weeks of introduction, in both PET and can formats.
Varun Beverages: A manufacturing machine
VBL operates 48 manufacturing facilities, including 36 in India and 12 internationally. Supporting them are more than 2,600 owned vehicles, more than 2,800 primary distributors and more than 130 depots, as per Motilal Oswal.
The company has historically added 300,000–400,000 retail outlets per year and is targeting up to 500,000 new outlets in CY26, according to Nuvama.
Varun Beverages: The Africa push
In 2016, the company acquired stakes in its Zambia and Zimbabwe operations. This was followed in 2017 by an increase in its Zambia stake to 90%, while it exited Mozambique, citing limited scale-up potential. By 2018, its Zimbabwe subsidiary had begun commercial production at a greenfield facility.
Most recently, in 2024, VBL expanded further in Africa by acquiring a 100% stake in The Beverage Company in South Africa, along with SBC Tanzania and SBC Beverages Ghana. In Q1CY26, VBL completed the acquisition of Twizza in South Africa through its subsidiary, The Beverages Company, at an enterprise value of ZAR 2,053 million. VBL’s subsidiary also entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of Crickley Dairy Proprietary Limited in South Africa at an enterprise value of approximately ZAR 238 million, subject to Competition Commission approvals.
Varun Beverages: Competition and the Campa question
Varun Beverages’ progress needs to be seen with perspective of rising competition –
The company acknowledged that Reliance Consumer Products-owned Campa has been expanding aggressively even as Coca-Cola continues to grow. In response, VBL said it will focus on protecting margins rather than chasing market share in the water segment.
Reliance Consumer Products said its Campa brand crossed Rs 4,700 crore in gross sales in FY26, emerging as India’s fourth-largest carbonated soft drink brand with a double-digit market share in key regions. Its packaged water business has also grown rapidly, now ranking as the third-largest branded player in the country. Overall, RCPL reported gross revenue of Rs 22,000 crore in FY26, doubling from the previous year, as per the Nuvama report.
Varun Beverages: Shareholding and market data
Varun Beverages’ shareholding pattern reflects a promoter-led structure, with promoters holding 59.44% as of March 2026, according to company data. Foreign institutional investors account for 19.51%, while domestic institutional investors hold 14.4%, according to Nuvama’s data. The pledge on promoter shares has come down to zero as of March 2026, from 0.04% in the preceding two quarters.
VBL is part of RJ Corp, the conglomerate run by Ravi Kant Jaipuria, who serves as chairman and promoter of the company. Jaipuria is the only Indian to have received PepsiCo’s International Bottler of the Year award, which he was given in 1997, as per the company’s website. The company went public in November 2016, listing on both the NSE and BSE at an IPO price of Rs 445 per share.
Nuvama recommends ‘Buy’ on Varun Beverages
Nuvama’s note is built around one central argument: El Niño-driven heatwaves in the first half of CY27 are likely to be a strong tailwind for summer beverage categories, and VBL is best placed to capture that demand.
About Varun Beverages
The company was incorporated in New Delhi on 16 June 1995 and began operations at Jaipur in 1996. VBL is a part of the RJ Corp group and is named after VBL’s promoter and Chairman, Ravi Jaipuria’s son. By 1999, it had added plants at Alwar, Jodhpur and Kosi. The growth since then has been relentless. Today, VBL is responsible for roughly 85% or more of PepsiCo’s beverage volume in India, up from 45% in CY16, covering 27 states and 7 union territories, according to the company’s website and Nuvama estimates.
India remains VBL’s core engine, with the Indian subcontinent contributing around 83% of total revenue as of CY23. The rest comes from seven countries across Africa, like Morocco, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini and Lesotho, along with Sri Lanka and Nepal, according to company disclosures.
VBL reported consolidated revenue from operations of Rs 21,685.4 crore for CY25. Adjusted net profit for CY25 stood at Rs 3,023.5 crore, as per the Nuvama report.
Varun Beverages share price performance
Varun Beverages’ share price has been up 1.82% as of intraday trading on April 29, 2026. The stock price has been up 6.84% last week and 37.69% in the past month. Furthermore, the stock has been rather flat in the past year.
