He has rejected Coca Cola's offer in London to buy out the bottlers and give them an equity stake in one of the two proposed bottling subsidiaries that Coca Cola plans to set up up in the country.
Instead, Chauhan -- who has two bottling companies in Delhi and has franchise rights to parts of the capital -- has decided to remain as an independent franchisee bottler for Coca Cola. Chauhan told Business Standard, "The London meeting was very good but I have decided to remain independent."
Coke has offered an equity deal to all its bottlers after which it proposes to buy out their' stake in each of the franchisee bottling companies and, subsequently, merge each of these firms into one of its two proposed botlling subsidiarires while giving them a stake in the Coke subsidiaries.
