PepsiCo's Bottler Buys the Daima Brand for $32 Million

PepsiCo's largest bottling partner outside the United States made a significant move into Kenya's non-carbonated beverage market when Varun Beverages disclosed that its Kenyan subsidiary had signed a $32 million deal to acquire the dairy beverages, juices, and packaged drinking water business of Devyani Food Industries Kenya including the Daima brand.

The acquisition includes a manufacturing facility in Nakuru 52 acres, 17,500 square metres of built-up space, certified to FSSC 22000 and ISO 9001:2015 .

Giving Varun Beverages an immediately operational production base and distribution network in a market it already knows through its PepsiCo bottling operations.

The deal makes strategic sense.

Varun already bottles Pepsi, Mountain Dew, and Sting in Kenya.

Adding dairy, juice, and packaged water expands its portfolio into the fast-growing non-carbonated segment categories where consumer demand in East Africa has been consistently growing, and where a Nakuru base provides efficient logistics for upcountry distribution.

For Kenya's food and beverage sector, the deal signals continued appetite from large Asian multinationals for locally established manufacturing assets a trend with real implications for how Kenya's branded food industry evolves over the next decade.