Beverages and snacks major PepsiCo’s India region president Manu Anand has quit the company with immediate effect, according to a company statement.
“PepsiCo India region president Manu Anand has decided to join another company and is leaving PepsiCo. His successor will be announced in due course,” a PepsiCo India spokesperson said.
Anand became the chairman of PepsiCo’s India region in January 2011. In that role, he was responsible for the company’s beverage and foods businesses in India and the neighbouring South Asian countries except Pakistan. He had been with the company for 19 years.
Following this development, PepsiCo India CEO (beverages) Gautham Mukkavilli and PepsiCo India CEO (foods) Praveen Someshwar will now directly report to PepsiCo AMEA (Asia, Middle East and Africa) head Saad Abdul Latif.
The announcement came a day after rival Coca Cola elevated Atul Singh as deputy president of the company’s Pacific Group with effect from July 1. Singh was earlier the CEO and president of India and West Asia.
Anand joined PepsiCo in 1994 as the chief financial officer of Frito-Lay India. Four years later, he assumed the role of managing director of Frito-Lay business of PepsiCo India Holdings. He served as the general manager of the company’s South-east Asia business unit from 2007 to 2010, prior to assuming his current role. In 2011, Anand succeeded Sanjeev Chadha as the head of the company’s India region and Chadha moved to PepsiCo’s Middle East and Africa operations.
(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)