Roger A. Enrico, chairman and chief executive officer of PepsiCo Inc, believes the companys interests would be affected if the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power and implemented a protectionist policy.
Enrico was responding to questions by journalists aimed at eliciting his views in this regard.
If there was a policy like that, it would severely hit anyones interest in India. If India took one step backwards it would be a less attractive place and we would have to reassess what we are doing, Enrico said on Tuesday.
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But the PepsiCo chief was optimistic that Indias reforms would continue and the country would become a more attractive destination for foreign investment. We expect India to be a more attractive place in the future, and from what we gather from meeting people in government, the reforms will continue, he said. Irrespective of the parties, I see a broad consensus in India on the free market. This is the opinion of any multinational which is investing in India, he added.
Enrico, who is on a three-day visit to India his first since taking over as the chairman of the beverage and foods giant reiterated Indias importance and said it ranked among the companys top three priority areas. He added that finance would never be an impediment in matching rival Coca-Colas investments in India.
India ranks among the second or third priorities for the company. We are pleased to invest in India and we are looking for a successful investment in the country, said Enrico.
Commenting on Cokes much-publicised intention of investing more than $700 million in India, Enrico said: We keep a close track of their (Cokes) investment and the end result of the investment in the kind of infrastructure which is being built. It is not our intention to fall behind them at all. We are growing at a rapid rate and capital is not an issue as we have absolute faith in India. Enrico was ready for a price war in the cola segment if Coca-Cola resorted to reducing prices. Pricing is a weapon used occasionally by our competition and sometimes by us. But if it happens in India, we will stand toe-to-toe. We have resources to compete.
Criticising Cokes strategy of buying out bottlers, Enrico expressed full faith in Pepsis own system. We have no problem with the service provided by our bottlers. When Enrico was told that Coke had cited lack of quality as a key reason for its move to acquire bottlers, he shot back, For Coke, quality has been used as an issue to push out all franchisee bottlers and take them over and I presume they are being successful in doing that. Our strategy is to have a balance between company-owned bottles and franchises.
Enrico said Pepsi would not initiate any move to lure away Coke bottlers in India, but would be choosy in picking up any bottlers. Our address is in the yellow pages, but we will not woo bottlers away from competition. We will be choosy as we were in the case of the Goa bottler. On Pepsis performance in India, Enrico said in a lighter vein: I tell Suman (Pepsis India chief P M Sinha) that I predicted sales exactly but five years later. We had a slow start till 1993 in India but after that we saw very high growth of over 50 per cent till about 1997.
On whether he feared Samata Party leader and Cokes old nemesis, George Fernandes, Enrico said: I dont think I should be afraid. He makes colourful statements.