Diageo chief Praveen Someshwar bets on India as the world’s next great consumer market

Praveen Someshwar, the managing director and chief executive of Diageo India, believes India is on the cusp of becoming the world’s most important consumer market — a shift he says will play out over the next decade. “India will be the consumer market of the next decade, as I see it,” Someshwar said in a recent interview with CNBC-TV18. “It has got its ducks in a row, in spite of everything going on around the world. Look at the demographics of the country. Look at how the middle class is growing, look at GDP growth, and that’s a great place to be running a business.”

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United Spirits, the Indian arm of global drinks giant Diageo, currently generates about $1.5 billion in annual revenue. Someshwar has set his sights on sustaining double-digit revenue growth and expanding margins, particularly in the company’s prestige and above segment. “What I’m very, very clear about is double-digit revenue growth in our P&A segment, so that we are consistently winning and our margins are improving further,” he said.

Building on a Strong Portfolio

The company’s scale, Someshwar noted, gives it a distinct advantage in a competitive and heavily regulated industry. “We have a powerful portfolio, three ₹1,000-crore brands, three ₹500-crore brands, four ₹100-crore brands — wow. This is scale. We are amongst the top 10 equity brands — we have five of them within Diageo. That’s a powerful space to be in,” he said.

His strategy rests on three pillars: reshaping the portfolio for the future, embedding the company within Indian society, and preparing the organisation for long-term success. A central plank, he added, will be innovation — with investments flowing into research, development and talent. “You can see us investing in our R&D, investing in talent around it. So, it gives me a clear opportunity for us to unlock the future portfolio,” he said.

Focus on Value and Premiumisation

Asked about growth parameters, Someshwar emphasized his focus on value creation. “I constantly look at value, because the way I see it is: consumer in occasions, how do I get a share of the occasion, and how do you grow that share of the occasion? I would love to see volumes consistently grow, but more importantly, how do I keep premiumising and look at value,” he said.

That push for premiumisation, he argued, is “real in India,” and will be central to the company’s strategy over the next five years.

Leadership Continuity and PepsiCo Roots

Someshwar, who previously held senior roles at PepsiCo, also reflected on the influence of that company’s leadership pipeline, which has produced several high-profile consumer industry executives in India. “PepsiCo as I say, it’s not only in India, it’s global. It’s a factory which brings out great talent. And what they do, I think, wonderfully well is they get talent in and shape them constantly, and reshape them, so that when you leave PepsiCo — and typically, most of these leaders would have spent 15-20 years within the organisation — they’ve gone through every phase and therefore built it out,” he said.

At United Spirits, he credited his predecessors with laying the groundwork for growth by steering the company through legacy issues and policy shifts. “They’ve done wonderfully well for the organisation. And you can see the momentum in the organisation. It just speaks volumes about how Diageo has embedded the business in India, and how these leaders have done phenomenally well. So that’s my first point. I think they made my task easier — that’s how I put it,” he said.

Looking Ahead

For Someshwar, success in 2030 will be measured not just by sales or margins but by broader impact. “The core for us is: how do we embed ourselves in society and participate in Viksit Bharat? And if we are to participate there, you need to grow in double digits at minimum. You need to obviously do it in a profitable manner. You need to create a portfolio of the future which builds on the occasions Gen Zs as well as millennials are growing up on,” he said.

“If I were to look at 2030 and look back, we’ll need to measure ourselves against each one of them. And we should be able to say: wow, there is more talent coming out of Diageo, there is more growth coming out of Diageo, there are more consumer occasions owned by Diageo. That’s what will make it exciting.”

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