JVs with Starbucks, Pepsi to help Tata Global's position: Tata

Joint ventures with Starbucks Coffee and PepsiCo would cement Tata Global Beverages' position in the market place, Group Chairman Ratan Tata said today.

"The joint ventures with Starbucks Coffee and PepsiCo will cement the company's postion in the market and it will no longer be the company it used to be," he said in his last speech as the chairman of the Tata Group in the annual general meeting here.

Tata Global JV with Starbucks has been named Tata Starbucks Ltd, while that with Pepsico as NourishCo.

Tata said Tata Starbucks would open coffee outlets within the country and the PepsiCo JV would launch hydration products based on the health and wellness platform.

The company has looked at opportunities in the instant coffee business in Uganda, but the "venture did not work out".

"We are still looking at new ones," he replied to shareholders' queries.

Tata said the depreciation of the rupee had been beneficial to the company.

He also ruled out any plan to acquire tea gardens as the company had ceased to be a plantation company when it was Tata Tea.

"Today we have grown beyond tea; now it is a beverages company," he said.