Pepsico India chief Manu Anand quits
Manu Anand, a 19 year veteran of Pepsico has quit the company with immediate effect
Last Updated: Jul 01, 2013, 13:24 IST1 min
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Manu Anand, chief executive of Pepsico’s Indian operations has quitthe company somewhat abruptly. Anand who had spent 19 years in thecompany will be leaving with immediate effect according to a companystatement.
Pepsico India is yet to announce a successor. In the interim, GauthamMukkavilli, who heads the beverage division and Praveen Someshwar, whoheads the foods business will report to Saad Abdul-Latif. He headsPepsico Asia, Middle East and Africa.
Anand’s departure comes amid speculation that he had been asked toleave. An internal employee who spoke with Forbes India said thatoperationally the company had been losing ground to competitor CocaCola in the last few months. Anand’s bet to pay Rs160 crore for theIPL doesn’t seem to have paid off. According to recent Nielsen numbersthe company has lost ground to Coca Cola. Pepsico’s market share fellto 29.7 percent from 32.1 percent, the Economic Times reported.
Another reason cited is Anand’s inability to retain his senior team.Last April, Varun Berry, who was head of the foods business left thecompany. He has since been appointed COO at Britannia. Anotherprominent departure was that of Geetu Verma, who joined HindustanUnilever as executive director foods. In addition to this there havebeen several departures at the general manager level, a fact thatdidn’t go unnoticed in Pepsico headquarters.
Insiders say what really did, Anand in was his inability to get RaviJaipuria, Pepsico India’s largest bottler on board with some of thecompany’s long-term plans. “This lack of alignment really hurt thecompany,” he said. According to him Jaipuria had in the last fewmonths been taking his grievances directly to Indra Nooyi, Pepsico’sglobal CEO. He cited the company’s lack of robust defence to CocaCola’s Rs.8 per bottle price. That really hurt the company and resultin some loss in market share.
For the moment it’s unclear what the global parent will do. A PepsicoIndia spokesperson denied that Anand had been asked to leave or thathis departure had anything to do with performance. A short statementreleased by the company said Anand was leaving for a new job. Thecompany declined to comment on why the handover wasn’t done moresmoothly. Anand was unavailable for comment.
First Published: Jun 21, 2013, 10:58
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