Vikas Gupta named Coke's marketing head

Vikas Gupta is the new marketing head at Coca Cola India. He will take charge from March 1. His predecessor, Shripad Nadkarni, resigned to pursue other career options after a four-year stint.

Gupta, had earlier been with the soft drink company for over a decade and will now be also looking after the marketing activities in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Maldives.

These regions falls under the India division of the Atlanta based non-alcoholic beverage giant.

Gupta has worked with companies like Brooke Bond and Procter & Gamble India in their marketing departments between 1984 and 1994. He joined Coca-Cola India's marketing team in 1994 and held various portfolios, including brands and regional marketing assignments.

He moved to join The Coca-Cola Company's marketing team at Atlanta in 1999, until his return to India last year. His last assignment was with Yum Foods, the company that runs fast food chain Pizza Hut. Gupta is a management graduate from XLRI Jamshedpur where he specialized in marketing and finance.

"Along with excellent marketing competencies, he brings along an excellent knowledge of Indian markets, consumer insights and hands-on experience of having worked with the Coca-Cola system in India and Atlanta," the company said in a release.

Gupta immediate assignment will be to devise the company's strategy for the upcoming peak summer season. This will be the first summer after two rounds of price increases took the 200 ml pack size to Rs 6 and the 300 ml to Rs 8 in 2004.

Prices of the larger PET packs have also been increased late last year.

Coca-Cola India has a wide range of beverages, including Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Thums Up, Fanta, Limca, Sprite, Maaza, Sunfill, Georgia, Georgia Gold, Kinley and Kinley Club Soda, which are sold through a network of more than one million outlets. More than $1 billion has been invested in the Indian operations.