MUMBAI: Just a couple of  weeks after the Jubilant Bhartia group said that it would be taking a 40 per cent stake in Hindustan Coca-Cola Holdings (the parent company of the largest Coca-Cola bottler in India),  it announced that its offshoot Jubilant Foodworks Ltd (JFL)  has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Coca-Cola India to procure its  sparkling beverages for its fast-food outlets.

JFL  operates five brands - three of them are under master franchise  agreements from three global players —Domino’s, Popeyes, and Dunkin’—and two are proprietary brands Hong’s Kitchen, an Indo-Chinese QSR  brand in India and a café brand Coffy in Turkey. The group has 3,130 outlets in six markets including India, Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and Georgia with India accounting for 2,199 of them as of 30 September.

Until now, Coke rival PepsiCo was the beverage partner of Domino’s in India following  an agreement in 2018. As part of that, PepsiCo’s  carbonated beverages such as Pepsi, Mountain Dew, 7Up, and Mirinda along with Lipton Ice Tea are served to customers. India is the largest market outside of the US for Dominos. 

The Coca-Cola Co India’s brands include Coca-Cola, Thums Up, Sprite, Minute Maid, Maaza, SmartWater, Kinley, Limca, and Fanta.

JFL made a regulatory filing with the Bombay stock exchange informing it of the MoU on 26 December. It further stated that “MoU between Coca-Cola India and JFL contains the principal terms and conditions for purchase of a portfolio of sparkling beverage products and certain other products from The Coca-Cola Co authorised bottlers and for conducting marketing activities (which will be undertaken in the usual/ordinary course) for the said products, as defined in the MoU in relation to various brands of JFL (franchised/owned brands) and products purchased by JFL from The Coca-Cola Co authorised bottlers. A master agreement will be executed between the parties based on the principal terms and conditions mentioned in the MoU on 1 April 2025.  After execution of the master agreement, The Coca-Cola Company authorized bottlers will become suppliers of sparkling beverages and other products as set out in the MoU to JFL. The arrangement will help JFL enhance its consumer offerings.”