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PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta meets PM Modi as full board lands in India amid trade strains
The meeting comes at a sensitive moment in Indo-US relations- amid trade frictions, fresh GST hikes on sugary drinks, and ongoing negotiations on a bilateral trade pact.
Laguarta earlier had said that India is a big growth space for the company.
PepsiCo’s global chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on September 16, marking the first-ever interaction between the two in India, sources confirmed to Storyboard18. The meeting comes at a sensitive moment in Indo-US relations- amid trade frictions and ongoing negotiations on a bilateral trade pact.
It is to be noted that this is the first time in nearly a decade that PepsiCo has flown down its full board to India, underscoring the country’s rising weight in its global strategy. The senior leadership team reportedly is in India for a three-day schedule as part of its quarterly executive committee meeting, which rotates across key markets. After a day in Delhi, the delegation reportedly will continue to Hyderabad, where the company’s Global Capability Centre is based.
In April, Laguarta had led a team of over two dozen global executives from the company’s snacks business on a similar India tour. For PepsiCo, India has been identified as one of its 13 anchor markets and is expected to drive more than 85% of future growth.
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During the Q1 2025 earnings call, Laguarta said, "The international business continues to be the kind of largest growth engine for the company, and we continue to invest in that business." The company's international business reported 11% revenue growth in Q1. India also remained a key driver in its international convenience foods growth.
Further he said, "Our international convenience foods business delivered 2% organic revenue growth. The growth was driven by India, Brazil, Egypt and Turkey."
Last year, in conversation with analysts, he said, "We continue to see a lot of growth in many parts of our AMESA region, In particular, India is a big growth space for us and is an investment area for sure. The opportunity is massive, if you think – if you take a decade perspective and we're putting infrastructure on the ground and we're putting a lot of – we're investing in the brands, make sure that we build the scale to capture what is going to be, I think, a high demand market for many, many years."
In the April–June 2025 quarter, PepsiCo’s international convenience foods division posted 4% revenue growth, with India cited as a strong contributor. The company reported a low-single-digit organic revenue growth, posting $22,726 million, compared to $22,501 million in the same period last year.
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