We have a five-year plan for healthy products: D Shivakumar

Fun-for-you products seem to be losing the charm at PepsiCo as the contribution of 'healthier' products in its portfolio has increased to 20% from nil 10 years ago Stock Market Trading tips The company has also increased its R&D spend by 40% over last five years to catch up with its chief Indra Nooyi's diktat of focusing on better-and-good-for-you products. D Shivakumar, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo India, has been at the helm of the Indian arm of the US food and beverage major for two years. Here, he talks to TOI about the company's game plan for 2016.

What is your focus with Tropicana, given that health is increasingly a focus area for PepsiCo?

You know the health and wellness journey that PepsiCo is on. Indra Nooyi's vision for the company has classified products into categories such as good for you, better for you and fun for you. Tropicana, a top-end health and wellness brand, will be an extremely important part of our portfolio going forward. We locally source nearly 65% of what we sell here in terms of fruit juices. Therefore, it's a very important element of the value chain of the agriculture market. Fruits and vegetables are an important part of the agenda for the government going forward. And Tropicana will play an important role in executing that Himanshu Tiwari Astrologer Blog

You still import a large part of the raw material. Is that changing?

We have just launched mosambi juice, which is a great innovation. This is the first branded mosambi juice in the market. The most widely-consumed drink in India is mosambi with 18% market share followed by lime juice (nimbu paani). We are competing with a housewife who prepares mosambi juice and a vendor selling it on the street. The focus on Tropicana is to build a whole range of these type of drinks, to really get fruit juice to be a part of the diet of an Indian family. Earlier, we didn't have enough citrus processing facilities in India. We have now established that with a partner in Maharashtra. The focus is to Indianize as many products as possible such as orange juice. Later, an extension programme should be a part of our larger programme like we have done with potato Commodity Market trading Tips