Brands
Charlotte Wolf Tarfa named Coca-Cola VP people & culture – India & Southwest Asia
Takes charge of people strategy across India and Southwest Asia
MUMBAI: Charlotte Wolf Tarfa has been appointed vice president, people and culture for India and Southwest Asia at The Coca-Cola Company, stepping into a role that sits at the heart of the beverage giant’s growth playbook for the region.
In her new position, Tarfa will lead the people strategy across India and Southwest Asia, aligning talent, culture and leadership development with the company’s long term ambitions. Her mandate also includes building diverse, skills based leadership pipelines to support the business as it scales.
Announcing the move, she said she was proud to take on the role and partner with teams across what she described as a dynamic region.
Tarfa brings more than a decade of global human resources and talent development experience to the post. She has spent over four years with Coca-Cola, most recently serving as vice president, global talent strategy and succession, where she worked closely with senior leadership to shape talent plans across more than 200 markets.
Before that, she held senior talent and development roles within the company’s global functions, supporting thousands of employees worldwide. Earlier in her career, she spent six years at InterContinental Hotels Group, where she led corporate learning, leadership development and HR business partnering for global teams.
With experience spanning talent strategy, organisational transformation and leadership development, Tarfa now takes on one of Coca-Cola’s most dynamic markets, where people and culture are expected to be as central to growth as the brand’s iconic red label.
Brands
Dunkin’ Donuts to exit India as Jubilant FoodWorks ends 15-year franchise deal
The quick service restaurant giant is ending a 15-year franchise partnership with the American doughnut chain, even as it renews its Domino’s agreement for another 15 years
NOIDA: Dunkin’ is done in India. Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd, the country’s leading quick service restaurant operator, has decided not to renew its franchise agreement with the American coffee and doughnut chain, and will wind down its Indian stores in a phased manner before December 31, 2026, bringing a 15-year partnership to a quiet, loss-laden close.
The decision, approved by JFL’s board on March 30, 2026, ends a relationship that began with a Multiple Unit Development Franchise Agreement signed on February 24, 2011. JFL will now evaluate and undertake what it described in a regulatory filing as the “rationalisation and/or cessation of certain operations and/or sale, transfer or disposal of assets and/or assignment or transfer of franchise rights,” all in consultation with Dunkin’s brand owners and strictly within the terms of the original agreement.
The numbers tell the story bluntly. In the financial year 2024-25, Dunkin’ India posted a revenue of Rs 37 crore against a loss of Rs 19 crore — a haemorrhage that was always going to test the patience of a parent company recording revenues of Rs 6,104 crore and a profit of Rs 194 crore in the same period. Doughnuts, it turns out, were never going to move the needle.
The contrast with JFL’s handling of its other marquee franchise could hardly be sharper. Even as it walks away from Dunkin’, the company has just doubled down on Domino’s, signing a fresh Master Franchise Agreement on March 31, 2026, granting it exclusive rights to develop and operate Domino’s Pizza stores in India for 15 years, with an option to renew for a further 10.
JFL, incorporated in 1995 and promoted by the Bharatia family, operates a network of more than 3,500 stores across six markets — India, Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Its portfolio includes Domino’s and Popeyes on the global side, and two home-grown brands: Hong’s Kitchen and COFFY, a café brand in Turkey.
For Dunkin’, India was always a stretch. The brand never quite cracked the cultural code in a market where filter coffee and chai command fierce loyalty and where the doughnut remains, at best, an occasional indulgence rather than a daily habit. Fifteen years, mounting losses and a parent with better things to spend its capital on was always going to be a difficult equation to solve.
The doughnut has had its last day. The pizza, however, is staying.
