Beverage price wars loom as Indian billionaire acquires Kenyan firm for Sh4.8b

Kenya's soft drinks market is on the brink of an all-out price war after Indian billionaire Ravi Jaipuria one of Asia's wealthiest men and the country's undisputed "Cola King", snapped up a Kenyan dairy and juice plant for $32 million (Sh4.8 billion).

The deal paves the way for the long-awaited return of Pepsi, Mirinda and Mountain Dew to supermarket shelves.

The acquisition, disclosed in a regulatory filing in India last Monday, puts Jaipuria's Varun Beverages Ltd (VBL), the world's second-largest PepsiCo bottler, directly on a collision course with Coca-Cola, which commands a staggering 93.9 per cent of Kenya's carbonated drinks market, according to the Competition Authority of Kenya.

With a ready-made factory in Nakuru now in hand, VBL Kenya is preparing to flood the market with a full range of carbonated soft drinks, setting the stage for a battle that could slash prices and reshape East Africa's beverage landscape.

VBL's Kenyan subsidiary is acquiring the value-added dairy beverages, juices and packaged drinking water business of Devyani Food Industries (Kenya) Ltd, the maker of the popular Daima and Aquaclear brands.

The transaction includes a 52-acre (21-hectare) manufacturing plant in Nakuru, strategically located on the Nakuru-Nairobi national highway, with 17,500 square metres of built-up space. The deal is expected to close on or before August 1, 2026.

Kenya has long been Coca-Cola's stronghold. Coca-Cola Beverages  Africa (CCBA) controls six plants in the country and announced a $175 million (Sh26.25 billion) five-year investment plan in 2024.

Pepsi's current footprint is a mere 1.5 per cent market share, bottled by Mauritius-based Crown Beverages, which acquired the local Seven Up Bottling Company in 2024. That imbalance is about to be upended, analysts say.

Jaipuria earned his crown as India's "Cola King" from the shadows. He built a billion-dollar empire not by creating brands, but by bottling them for the world's biggest names.

His moniker stems from his dominance as PepsiCo's largest bottling partner in India and one of its biggest franchisees globally outside the United States.

His flagship, VBL, controls 90 per cent of PepsiCo's bottling in India and holds rights across 27 States and seven Union Territories. Globally, VBL ranks as PepsiCo's second-largest bottler outside the U.S.

Jaipuria's journey began in 1987 when a family business split left him with a single Coca-Cola bottling plant in Agra, India. When PepsiCo entered India, he switched allegiance and never looked back. The company he named after his son, Varun, grew from that one plant into a beverage empire spanning more than 30 plants across India, Africa and Asia.

Today, with a net worth estimated at $17.3 billion (Sh2.6 trillion), Jaipuria is the "Cola King" because, quite simply, if you drink a Pepsi in India, or increasingly across Africa, it almost certainly came through his hands.

Varun Beverages has been quietly assembling an African empire. It acquired South Africa's Twizza for $40 million (Sh6 billion) and a snacks and dairy complex in Zimbabwe. It is constructing a $650 million (Sh97.5 billion) investment plan for Zimbabwe over five years.

Now, with the Nakuru acquisition, VBL Kenya can bypass the years needed to build a new plant. It can start production immediately, slashing time-to-market and, analysts say, undercutting Coca-Cola on price.

The Nakuru facility produces value-added dairy beverages, fruit juices and packaged drinking water under the Daima and Creambell brands. It is equipped with a reverse osmosis plant, boiler, effluent treatment plant, diesel generator and air compressor, and holds international certifications including Food Safety System Certification 22000 and ISO 9001:2015.

The deal is a related-party transaction, DFIL Kenya is a promoter group company. That means Jaipuria is essentially transferring assets from one part of his empire to another, streamlining operations for a full-scale Kenyan assault.

"The acquisition will enable VBL to deepen its penetration in Kenya and the broader East African region by leveraging DFIL Kenya's manufacturing infrastructure and distribution capabilities," the company said in its filing.

Jaipuria is not the only billionaire eyeing Kenya's thirst. Tanzanian tycoon Mohammed Dewji is investing $50 million (Sh7.5 billion) in a soft drinks plant in Mombasa, aiming to challenge both Coca-Cola  and Pepsi with low-cost beverages. His MeTL Group's Mo Cola, Mo Xtra and Mo Malto brands are already shaking up Tanzania's consumer market.

Kenya has recently become a magnet for inbound corporate investment, from Gulf logistics money to Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote's planned $17 billion (Sh2.55 trillion) refinery in Lamu, though details on that remain sparse.

The transaction is expected to close on or before August 1, 2026.