Coca-Cola ready to gulp Brindavan

HINDUSTAN Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB), the bottling arm of Coca-Cola India, is in final stages of negotiations to acquire Brindavan Beverages, its fastest growing and among its biggest co-packers. The deal is expected to be finalised next week. The size of the deal could not be ascertained. Brindavan Beverages, owned by SN Ladhani, has co-packing lines in Bareilly in UP and Hospet (in Karnataka). HCCB is in talks to acquire Brindavan Agro as well, its co-packer in Balia, UP, also owned by the Ladhani group. While the Bareilly plant has dedicated lines for Maaza juices in both PET bottles and tetrapacks, the plant at Hospet, Karnataka, has lines for soft drinks in glass and PET bottles, as well as water. The plants owned by the Ladhani group cover the entire north, east, central India and western India for juices, while the group’s soft drink plant covers a large part of North India among other regions. The Hospet plant has a capacity to produce 600 bottles-per-minute. When contacted by ET, an HCCB spokesperson confirmed that “HCCB is realigning its manufacturing operations across the country and is putting company assets to more productive use. The restructuring involves moving lines from some existing plants to other plants, closure of certain plants and renegotiation of contracts with some co-packers.” As reported by ET earlier, HCCB has already bought out another other co-packing juice plant located near Tirupati. HCCB has been fast-tracking on acquiring bottling operations of its co-packers, in line with its strategy to realign its manufacturing capacities.

Courtesy: EconomicTimes