In 1985, Ravi Jaipuria began his journey with Pepsi-Cola as a bottler after returning to India and joining his family business.
Soft drinks like Pepsi, 7 Up, Mountain Dew, and Mirinda are widely consumed in India, especially in summer. Ravi Jaipuria, the man behind these beverages, is the owner of Varun Beverages, which produces, bottles, and distributes these drinks across India.
Ravi Jaipuria, India’s cola king, is the chairman of RJ Corp which manages Devyani International and Varun Beverages. He studied business management in the US and is a billionaire businessman. Varun Beverages, the second-largest bottling partner for PepsiCo’s beverages outside the US, is one of his major business ventures.
After returning to India in 1985, Ravi Jaipuria joined the family business of bottling Pepsi-Cola. Following a family division in 1987, he received one bottling plant as his share and eventually shifted his focus to PepsiCo. Apart from his beverage business, Jaipuria also holds a minority stake in the healthcare firm Medanta and the hotel chain Lemon Tree.
As of April 23, 2023, Ravi Jaipuria’s net worth, as per Forbes, is $8.9 billion (Rs 73,01,63,56,500) and he ranked 232nd on the magazine’s Billionaires (2023) list. He was also ranked 21st on Forbes’ India’s Richest list in 2022.
In 1985, Ravi Jaipuria’s wife passed away in a plane crash. He has a son named Varun and a daughter named Devyani. He named his company Varun Beverages after his son and Devyani International after his daughter.
Devyani International manages several popular food and beverage chains such as KFC, Pizza Hut, Costa Coffee, and TWG Tea, while Varun Beverages is among PepsiCo’s largest bottling partners worldwide. As of March 31, 2023, RJ Corp Limited holds seven publicly traded stocks worth more than Rs 37,334.1 crore, according to Trendlyne’s corporate shareholdings.
