Brands
Jubilant FoodWorks signs MoU with Coca-Cola India for its sparkling beverages
MUMBAI: Just a couple of weeks after the Jubilant Bhartia group said that it would be taking a 40 per cent stake in Hindustan Coca-Cola Holdings (the parent company of the largest Coca-Cola bottler in India), it announced that its offshoot Jubilant Foodworks Ltd (JFL) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Coca-Cola India to procure its sparkling beverages for its fast-food outlets.
JFL operates five brands – three of them are under master franchise agreements from three global players —Domino’s, Popeyes, and Dunkin’—and two are proprietary brands Hong’s Kitchen, an Indo-Chinese QSR brand in India and a café brand Coffy in Turkey. The group has 3,130 outlets in six markets including India, Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and Georgia with India accounting for 2,199 of them as of 30 September.
Until now, Coke rival PepsiCo was the beverage partner of Domino’s in India following an agreement in 2018. As part of that, PepsiCo’s carbonated beverages such as Pepsi, Mountain Dew, 7Up, and Mirinda along with Lipton Ice Tea are served to customers. India is the largest market outside of the US for Dominos.
The Coca-Cola Co India’s brands include Coca-Cola, Thums Up, Sprite, Minute Maid, Maaza, SmartWater, Kinley, Limca, and Fanta.
JFL made a regulatory filing with the Bombay stock exchange informing it of the MoU on 26 December. It further stated that “MoU between Coca-Cola India and JFL contains the principal terms and conditions for purchase of a portfolio of sparkling beverage products and certain other products from The Coca-Cola Co authorised bottlers and for conducting marketing activities (which will be undertaken in the usual/ordinary course) for the said products, as defined in the MoU in relation to various brands of JFL (franchised/owned brands) and products purchased by JFL from The Coca-Cola Co authorised bottlers. A master agreement will be executed between the parties based on the principal terms and conditions mentioned in the MoU on 1 April 2025. After execution of the master agreement, The Coca-Cola Company authorized bottlers will become suppliers of sparkling beverages and other products as set out in the MoU to JFL. The arrangement will help JFL enhance its consumer offerings.”
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
