Coca-Cola bottler Kandhari Global plans global growth and IPO—pending its partner’s approval

New Delhi: Kandhari Global Beverages Pvt. Ltd, among Coca-Cola India’s oldest franchise bottlers, is looking forward to expanding overseas as well as listing its shares on stock exchanges—if and when its US partner decides the time is right.

The New Delhi-based Kandhari Global’s growing ambitions follow Coca-Cola’s ongoing divestment of its bottling operations in India, allowing its local partners to gain wider control to bottle and sell its beverages in the country.

“We do look forward to being global someday, i.e., beyond the boundaries of India, if there’s an opportunity that ever comes up from the Coca-Cola Company,” Varinder Pal Singh Kandhari, managing director of Kandhari Global, or KGBPL, said in a virtual interview with Mint Wednesday. 

“As of now, whatever they had to re-franchise they have. But there could be other opportunities coming up. We are among their anchor bottlers in India. The current operating unit is establishing us and preparing us for a bigger role to play geographically,” he said, adding that any decision to expand Kandhari Global’s bottling operations outside India would be made by The Coca-Cola Co.

As for a potential public share listing, Kandhari again deferred to Coca-Cola’s policies. “The day they feel that our size and business require us to go (to) the markets we will definitely do that, but that decision lies with The Coca-Cola Co.,” he said.

On Wednesday, Kandhari Global announced its largest acquisition to date: a new plant from Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd (HCCB) in Sanand, Gujarat. HCCB is Coca-Cola’s largest bottler in India and a subsidiary of the US beverage major.

While the financial details of the deal were not disclosed, the acquisition significantly expands Kandhari Global’s operational footprint. Currently, it has bottling plants in six states and three union territories. 

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Kandhari Global’s India expansion 

The family-run Kandhari Global started bottling beverages for Coca-Cola in 1967. Coca-Cola was first introduced in India in 1950 but had to exit the market in 1977. It returned to India in 1993 following the country’s globalisation-focused economic reforms. 

The company is preparing for two new plants to become operational over the next 12-15 months, Kandhari said.

“As we speak we have one of the biggest plants in India coming up in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir that will be operational in April; it will have the biggest capacity in the country. We are also in the process of setting up a plant in Bundi district in Kota, Rajasthan—a territory we got last year. It does not have any manufacturing facility, yet. We are putting one plant thert,” he said.

Coca-Cola works with local bottling partners the world over; such partners manufacture and distribute its beverages in select markets or territories. In India, Coca-Cola sells Diet Coke, Thums Up, Fanta, Limca, Sprite, Maaza, and Minute Maid beverages.

Since 2019, Coca-Cola India, through its subsidiaries, has been divesting its bottling operations in the country—a process it said would help it streamline supply chains and help with faster execution.

In 2019, HCCB divested its bottling operations in four North Indian territories. In 2024, the company announced the transfer of its bottling operations in three other territories in North India. 

As part of this transition, Kandhari Global acquired the rights to operate in Rajasthan; while SLMG Beverages Pvt. Ltd, another local partner of Coca-Cola, secured the rights for Bihar.

Late last year, Jubilant Bhartia Group revealed plans to acquire a 40% stake in Hindustan Coca-Cola Holdings, the parent company of HCCB, in a transaction reportedly valued between ₹12,000 crore and ₹12,500 crore. (Jubilant Bhartia Group’s promoters are related to the owners of Hindustan Times and Mint.)

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