Multinational companies will stay committed to their India business operations despite a mixed December quarter, top executives have said in their post-results commentaries, as they see better market conditions emerge in calendar 2026.
The bullish outlook comes as the domestic consumer goods market comes out of a difficult October-December period, marred by weather uncertainty, GST-led trade issues, competition and demand conditions which are slowly recovering across urban and rural markets.
CEOs at Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, Mondelez, Whirlpool and AO Smith said they would continue to ‘double down’ on the India market, tapping into its growth potential and vast consuming class with innovative products, newer channels and formats.
What did Coca-Cola and Pepsi say?
“We will continue to invest because this is a market for the future. We are still building the industry there and that is why we need to continue to invest ahead of the curve,” Henrique Braun, executive vice president and chief operating officer (incoming chief executive officer), The Coca-Cola Company, said.
Coca-Cola, which follows a January-December fiscal, said it would increase investments in digital platforms, AI-led tools and market expansion in India in its quest for growth. This is despite competition heating up from rivals such as Reliance Consumer.
Rival PepsiCo, meanwhile, said that India was among markets that led growth in the firm’s international snacks business in 2025, counting on the low penetration of packaged foods to drive growth.
“We continue to see a long runway for profitable growth in our international business as we aim to significantly increase its size and scale, tailored by differentiated needs,” Ramon Laguarta, chairman and chief executive officer, PepsiCo, said.
Unilever CEO Fernando Fernandez described India as an ‘anchor market’ along with the US, where it would prioritise growth opportunities in premium categories such as beauty & wellbeing and personal care and across channels such as e-commerce and quick commerce.
“India is improving both in terms of economic background and fundamentals of the business. Particularly, our brand equity and brand superiority scores are improving across the board. Our execution, particularly in rural areas and traditional trade, independent trade, is also improving,” Fernandez told investors last week.
2000 cr investment announced by HUL
Unilever subsidiary Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has also announced an investment of up to Rs 2,000 crore to increase manufacturing capacity across premium categories. It will also focus on building a resilient and technology-enabled supply chain, the company said, as it seeks to get future-ready.
Colgate-Palmolive CEO Noel Wallace pointed to demand challenges among low-income consumers, but said it remained focused on premium products. “Overall, we are still quite bold on India over the longer term, a very important market for us where we’ve had great success. Our focus, strategy and innovation will be centred on the premium side of the business in the urban market,” Wallace said.
Mondelez International chairman & CEO Dirk Van de Put said despite input cost pressures in cocoa, markets such as India, Brazil, Australia and South Africa did well in chocolates. “If you look at how we’re doing in India, Australia and China, we see AMEA (Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa) as being a big source of volume growth for us. So that is certainly a region where we see some good performance coming through,” he said.
Whirlpool’s CEO Marc Bitzer said the company would retain its 39.8% stake in its Indian subsidiary after selling about 11.2% in the company via block deals in November. It had a 51% stake prior to the share sale, reiterating that it was evaluating other options to pare debt.
“We feel very comfortable with where we are in India. We have a number of minority stakes throughout the world. And India is now one of these,” Wallace added. AO Smith president and chief executive Stephen M Shafer said the company’s India business was projected to have a top-line growth of 10% in calendar year 2026, as it continued to tap brand synergies and acquisitions such as Pureit (from HUL) to grow faster in the country.