What drove Varun Beverages arm Bevco to acquire South African Twizza for ₹1,118.7 crore?

Varun Beverages, the largest franchise bottler for aerated drinks giant PepsiCo has announced that its subsidiary The Beverages Company (Bevco), will acquire South Africa-based firm Twizza for ₹1,118.7 crore.

In a filing with the exchanges on 21 December, Varun Beverages (VBL) said that its board has considered and approved the acquisition of 100% shares of Twizza at enterprise value of ₹1,118.7 crore (ZAR 2,095 million), payable in cash.

The deal is subject to regulatory and other approvals and is expected to be completed “on or before June 30, 2026”, it added.

What is Twizza?

As per reports, South African beverages brand Twizza manufactures and distributes its own branded non-alcoholic drinks through three manufacturing facilities in Cape Town, Middelburg and Queenstown.

It has a combined annual production capacity of 100 million cases and for FY25 had a turnover of ₹ ₹9010.26 million (ZAR 1,689 million).

One acquired, Twizza will become a step-down subsidiary of Bevco.

What is driving Varun Beverages decision to purchase Twizza?

VBL in the filing said that this acquisition “will enable Bevco to penetrate deeper in the South Africa market through Twizza's manufacturing facilities”. It added, “Twizza also has backward integration facilities at all plants with a total of 5 preform and 1 closure line.”

Speaking to analysts during the earnings call in October, VBL Chairman Ravi Jaipuria said the “growth in Africa is coming back”, adding that South Africa in particular will become an important part of the company's expansion in the continent.

“The growth in Africa is coming back. The challenge earlier was in Zimbabwe, the prices had gone up and consumption dropped slightly because of the sugar tax. Now, Zimbabwe has started growing again. Morocco is doing well for us, and South Africa is doing extremely well, with mid-double digits growth. Going forward with the backward integration and all, we see South Africa will become an important part of our territory in Africa,” Jaipuria stated.

In the September 2025 quarter, VBL's performance was poor with flat volumes in India, but South Africa had a standout quarter, leading the company's 9% growth in the international business for that quarter.

Notably, the Twizza acquisition comes after VBL bought The Beverage Company, South Africa along with its wholly owned subsidiaries BevCo in March 2024. This acquisition allowed the Company to consolidate its presence in franchised territories in South Africa, Lesotho, and Eswatini, as well as territories with distribution rights in Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, and Madagascar.

Varun Beverages sees growth opportunity in Africa market

• On November 13, 2024, VBL entered into a share purchase agreement with Tanzania Bottling Company SA and SBC Beverages Ghana for a purchase of 100% at an Equity value of $154.50 million for Tanzania and $15.06 million for Ghana. Both are PepsiCo's business, PTI reported.
• Varun Beverages Morocco SA, a wholly owned subsidiary of VBL, has an agreement to manufacture and package Cheetos in Morocco.
• It also has existing distribution agreement for PepsiCo's snacks portfolio, consisting of Lays, Cheetos, and Doritos in the territory of Morocco, it said.
• In 2024, VBL's revenue was at ₹20,007.7 crore and sold 1,124 million cases globally.

(With inputs from PTI)