BUSINESS STRATEGY

Indian-based group to sell PepsiCo snacks in Zambia and Zimbabwe

By our African Marketing Confederation News Team | 2024

Varun Beverages plans to establish plants in both countries in 2025-26 to produce PepsiCo’s Simba Munchiez brand of snacks.

Photo: Simba via ZA Facebook

Indian-based Varun Beverages, which is part of the RJ Corporation food and drinks group, has entered into an agreement with PepsiCo to manufacture and distribute snacks in Zimbabwe and Zambia.

The company says this is a strategic move to grow its presence in the African snacks market, and that it plans to invest approximately US$7-million in establishing facilities in both countries to produce PepsiCo’s Simba Munchiez brand of snacks.

Zimbabwe’s facility is expected to be operational by October 2025, while the Zambia plant is scheduled for around April 2026. Each of the new sites will have the capacity to produce approximately 5,000 metric tonnes of snacks annually for their respective markets.

According to the company, the snacks market in Zimbabwe is estimated at around $177-million annually, while Zambia’s market is valued at approximately $156-million.

Varun already produces biscuits at Harare plant

Varun Beverages already has a biscuit-manufacturing facility in Ardbennie, a suburb of Harare.

Its other snacks-based African business venture is in Morocco, where it has an agreement with PepsiCo to manufacture the Cheetos snack brand. The deal was agreed in February 2024 and production is scheduled to begin in May 2025.

Elsewhere in Africa, Varun Beverages has a PepsiCo bottling venture in Mozambique and owns Southern African PepsiCo bottler, The Beverage Company, which is commonly known as Bevco.

Trendtype, the London-based emerging markets consultancy, comments that the latest Zimbabwe and Zambia deals indicate a concerted move by PepsiCo to expand in African markets – especially with affordable, locally made products alongside its core soft drinks portfolio.

It also shows the growing importance of soft drinks bottlers as distributors of products in adjacent categories, such as snacks or alcohol, Trendtype adds.

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