Brands
Ram Krishnan named CEO of PepsiCo North America
MUMBAI: PepsiCo has tapped long-serving executive Ram Krishnan as chief executive officer of PepsiCo North America, handing him the keys to its most influential market as the company fine-tunes its organisation for the next phase of growth.
Effective December 28, 2025, Krishnan will oversee PepsiCo’s North America operations, with a clear brief to bring the company’s Foods and Beverages businesses closer together. The goal is simple in theory and ambitious in practice: sharper integration, faster decisions and a closer match between what consumers want and what customers need.
For PepsiCo, the appointment is as much about continuity as it is about change. Krishnan has spent nearly two decades inside the company, rising through the ranks with a career that reads like a tour of PepsiCo’s global engine room. Most recently, he served as CEO of PepsiCo Beverages U.S., following senior leadership roles that included CEO of International Beverages and chief commercial officer.
His experience stretches across continents and functions. As CEO for Asia Pacific, based in Shanghai, he helped steer the company through fast-growing and highly competitive markets. Earlier, he shaped global commercial strategy as PepsiCo’s global chief commercial officer, blending marketing, sales and customer insight at scale.
Before that, Krishnan built a reputation at Frito-Lay North America, where he held senior marketing and customer leadership roles, combining data-driven thinking with brand storytelling. Prior to joining PepsiCo, he cut his teeth at General Motors and Cadillac, gaining experience across consulting, product development and marketing.
Beyond PepsiCo, Krishnan also brings boardroom perspective. He serves on the board of directors of Tractor Supply Company, where he currently sits on the Compensation Committee and previously contributed as an Audit Committee member.
With North America remaining PepsiCo’s largest and most strategically critical region, the company is betting that a seasoned insider with global vision and local muscle can keep the snacks and sips giant firmly in step with changing tastes. For Krishnan, it is a homecoming of sorts, and for PepsiCo, a signal that the next chapter will be written by someone who already knows the plot inside out.
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.
