One of the global giants in the food and beverage space- PepsiCo has elevated Nitin Bhandari, who has been associated with the company for about two decades now, to the role of Vice President and General Manager- India and South Asia Beverages at the company.
This development comes in the wake of one of PepsiCo’s old hands- George Kovoor being poised for a retirement at the FMCG major by the end of this fiscal year, i.e.- March 31, 2025.
As for Bhandari, he took to LinkedIn to announce the development and mentioned, “Excited to lead our beverages business in India & South Asia. Grateful to Eugene Willemsen & Jagrut Kotecha for this opportunity, and deeply appreciative of George Kovoor’s leadership over the last 3 years to set such a strong foundation for this business.”
“Looking forward to partnering with our incredible team and bottling partners to unlock potential and create meaningful value for our consumer, communities & stakeholders in this vibrant region,” he added.
That said, Bhandari has been a part of PepsiCo since the very beginning of his career. He joined the FMCG major as a Management Trainee in July 2005 and since then has served across a slew of roles at the company, including that of Territory Development Manager, Senior Manager- Market Development, Senior Marketing Manager- Beverages (Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka), Associate Director- Mountain Dew (India), Marketing Director- Snacks (Thailand, Myanmar and Laos), Director- Sales and Business Development (Asia Pacific), Senior Director and General Manager- Foods and Beverages (Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore), VP and Chief Growth Officer (India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal).
Kovoor, on the other hand, started his career as Area Manager/Management Trainee at Brooke Bond India (part of Unilever) in 1988 and joined PepsiCo in December 1993 as Manager and GM- Franchise Operations.
In 1997, he was elevated to the role of GM/VP- Unit Operations in 1997, VP- Franchise Operations in 1999, EVP- Retail Channel (Traditional Trade) in September 2001 and Go To Market and Traditional Trade Director (Asia) in January 2004.
About two and a half years later, in September 2006, Kovoor assumed the role of Director- East Market Unit at PepsiCo and moved up the ranks to become VP- China and Hong Kong Market Units at PepsiCo Foods China in December 2007, VP- Business Transformation (Greater China Region) in June 2011, VP- Sales Development and Transformation in June 2012, followed by General Manager in March 2014 and SVP- Global Foodservice Customers in February 2016.
For the past three years, he has been serving the role of SVP and GM India Beverages at PepsiCo.
