Vangal To Go Alone After 12 Years At Pepsico

Ramesh Vangal, the former country head of PepsiCo India and currently President, Asia-Pacific region, for PepsiCo Foods, has quit the US-based snacks-to-beverages multinational after 12 years of service.

Vangal has expressed his intention to set up a business enterprise of his own which will be based in Singapore. The Singapore company is going to invest in food processing companies in India by picking up equity stakes in them.

Vangal and his company will help these companies in a range of areas which include research and development, marketing and developing a cold chain. Similar options for strategic investments will be looked at in China and Indonesia, the two other growing economies of Asia. Pepsi is also believed to be interested in developing new business relationships with Vangal and his proposed new enterprise.

 

An internal note circulated by Rogelio Rebolledo, the chief operating officer of PepsiCo Foods, quoted PepsiCo chairman Roger Enrico as stating: ...As his new plans are finalised I am hopeful about possible opportunities where Ramesh can develop solid business relations with the extended PepsiCo family.

Vangal, who sits on the prestigious 20-member Pepsi World Council, will continue in his present office until his successor is appointed, stated Rebolledo.

Vangal led Pepsis entry into the country in 1988 and the multinationals performance in the country thereafter became one of the most fascinating case studies at the Harvard Business School. Vangal was also chosen as the recipient of Pepsis high-performance-leadership award in 1993.

Under Vangals stewardship, the annual growth rate in the Asia-Pacific region for Pepsis snack-foods business jumped from about 5 per cent in 1994 to nearly 30 per cent in three years.

Rebolledo added: He (Ramesh) has operated as one of Pepsicos entrepreneurial executives since joining the company in 1985, and has been a major contributor to our dynamic growth. He also acknowledged Rameshs contribution to lead Pepsis foray into China and Thailand.

In a recent interview to India Abroad News Service, Vangal had said: I want to translate my Pepsi experience to get involved all along the food chainup and down, from lab to land to market.

Pepsi gave me the confidence to be different. My dimensions and what I want to do are much broader than what Pepsi has done. I am looking at three million stomachs in the region that need to be filled every three to eight hours.

I have been involved in the foods business at the premium end with high-priced products at high margins. My interest is to get into more basic and value added foods now, he added.

It is learnt that Vangal, who has clocked some two million km in the air since arriving in Singapore three years ago, has been itching for some time to translate his multinational experience into something more concrete.