Ravi Jaipuria's Varun Beverages to Acquire South Africa's Twizza VBL, which is majority-owned by the Jaipuria family, will execute this deal through its South African subsidiary called Bevco, which will give it control of three Twizza manufacturing plants in Cape Town, Queenstown, and Middelburg.
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Varun Beverages Ltd (VBL), the largest bottler for PepsiCo outside the USA, is expanding its Africa footprint with the acquisition of Twizza Proprietary Limited in a USD 125 million deal.
VBL, which is majority-owned by the Jaipuria family, will execute this deal through its South African subsidiary called Bevco, which will give it control of three Twizza manufacturing plants in Cape Town, Queenstown, and Middelburg.
Twizza is a producer and distributor of non-alcoholic beverages and operates a "fully backward-integrated production system." In the year ending 30 June 2025, Twizza generated a revenue of ~ USD 113 million in revenue and sales of close to 71 million 8-ounce cases. The deal is set to be completed by 30 June 2026, based on regulatory approvals in South Africa, Botswana, and Eswatini.
Meanwhile, for VBL, Africa has turned out to be a crucial market, with domestic volumes in India falling flat for the first three quarters of 2025 due to weather conditions. Its international volumes increased by 9 per cent, largely driven by African markets, with the region contributing to a 56.7 per cent gross margin in Q3 of CY2025.
VBL's African presence currently spans Morocco, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with distribution rights in Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, and Madagascar. According to Business Insider, the company is also establishing a wholly owned subsidiary in Kenya for local manufacturing and distribution.
Beyond non-alcoholic beverages, VBL also has a distribution agreement with Carlsberg to market test beer across a few African subsidiaries. The company's snack manufacturing in Morocco, Zambia, and Zimbabwe is said to have reached full capacity.
