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We may not notice it, but there is far more long-term planning required to ensure a consistent supply of FMCG products across retail outlets near you. For Paritosh Ladhani, the Joint Managing Director of SLMG Beverages, this has meant creating capacity years ahead of time and playing a patient wait-and-watch game as the demand for volumes grows incrementally.
“Scale is never the result of one big decision; it is the compounding of several right ones made at the right time. For us, the first inflection point was the conviction to invest ahead of demand. When we built our Trishundi facility near Lucknow, we built it not for the market that existed then but for the market we believed would exist a decade later. Today it is the largest Coca-Cola bottling plant in Southwest Asia and contributes nearly a quarter of our total production,” he explains.
Scaling up in time
As India’s largest independent Coca Cola bottler, SLMG Beverages has been instrumental in expanding the brand’s reach to the hinterland, especially in Bihar.
“Many saw it as a difficult market; we saw an underserved one. Building a network of over 400 distributors and a fleet of more than 700 vehicles there has given us reach that competitors will take years to replicate,” Paritosh admits, as the company has invested greatly to boost its manufacturing capabilities, logistics and soft skills.
Those long-term investments are now helping it face new competition, as the cola wars heat up with the re-entry of Campa Cola.
Threats & Opportunities
For Paritosh, this renewed ‘cola war’ isn’t a concern, as it is expected to help the beverage sector expand dramatically in semi-urban and rural areas, particularly with the rise of disposable incomes.
“Competition, including from Campa, is good for the category. It sharpens execution, expands availability and brings new consumers into the fold. Our response is not reactive pricing; it is structural strength affordability packs at accessible price points, a portfolio that goes well beyond sparkling into juices, hydration and water, and a distribution machine that reaches over a million outlets,” he explains.
Even the divestment of The Coca Cola Company’s stake in its domestic arm doesn’t concern him, as it shows how multinationals are now relying on the Indian bottler-led model.
“For independent bottlers like us, this is validation of what we have practised for decades. We have grown precisely because we operate close to the ground. Our decisions on routes, coolers, plants and people are made in days, not quarters.
As the ecosystem consolidates around strong franchise partners, SLMG’s role will only expand. We have the balance sheet, the operational track record and the appetite to take on larger responsibilities within the system as opportunities arise. Our focus remains on being the most reliable, best-executing partner in The Coca-Cola Company’s India franchise the rest follows from that,” he explains.
Stronger Numbers
Over the years, Paritosh and his family have steadily worked to grow the company beyond its flagship bottling company, with a commitment of ₹11,000 crore of investments over the next five years, including ₹3,000 in hospitality. After already crossing ₹10,000 crore in revenue in 2026, the Ladhani Group is now looking to expand its manufacturing capacity in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to strengthen its position in its bottling and hospitality businesses.
The secret to moving into hospitality
For Paritosh, moving beyond FMCG into hospitality hasn’t been a challenge, as the same design principles have worked for him everywhere.
“On the surface, selling a bottle of Coca-Cola and hosting a guest at a luxury hotel could not be more different. In reality, they run on the same three principles.
First, obsession with the end consumer. Whether it is a retailer in rural Bihar or a guest at the Taj in Agra, the business exists to serve one person at a time, and every process must be designed backwards from their experience.
Second, execution discipline. Strategy is widely available; execution is rare. A beverage business lives or dies by whether the right bottle is chilled and available at the right outlet at the right time. A hotel lives or dies by whether a thousand small details are right every single day. Both demand systems, measurement and an intolerance for excuses.
Third, people leverage. I have learnt that my job is to hire people better than me, give them genuine ownership and hold them to high standards. Empowered teams run businesses; founders only set direction. These three principles have travelled with me across every venture, and I suspect they would work in any industry,”
For the hospitality venture, it has been the deep understanding of the Indian customer that has helped them venture into the sector.
“The Indian consumer is simultaneously aspirational and value-conscious. They will pay for an experience they perceive as world-class, but they calculate value rigorously. Get the equation right and they reward you with extraordinary loyalty; get it wrong and no amount of brand equity saves you,” he admits.
Today, the Ladhani Group manages two properties- The Taj Hotel in Agra, in partnership with IHCL, and the Hard Rock Cafe in Delhi.
For Paritosh, the Taj brand has been instrumental in the success of the Taj Hotel in Agra.
“It carries a century of trust, and in a destination like Agra — where the world arrives to see the Taj Mahal — that trust converts directly into preference. Our partnership with IHCL has given us access to world-class operating standards, a powerful loyalty ecosystem and a brand that opens doors in every source market. The results speak for themselves: the hotel has led Agra on the Revenue Generation Index for two consecutive years and has become the city’s premier convention destination,” he concedes.
Bringing the Hard Rock Cafe brand to Delhi meant customizing the experience without diluting the brand’s promise.
“Hard Rock Café was my education in the Indian consumer. I learnt early that Indians do not want a photocopy of a global experience, they want the global brand on their own terms. The brand promise had to stay intact, but the menu, the music programming, the price architecture and the occasions we built around the café all had to be reimagined for Delhi,” he explains.
Further expansions into hospitality
Moving ahead, the Ladhani group is now looking to expand its hospitality sector into a serious growth engine.
“We have earmarked around ₹3,000 crore for the sector over the next five years and intend to double our room inventory. Our new developments planned in Udaipur, Goa and Agra will be exclusively in the uber-luxury space, because that is where India’s hospitality story has the most headroom and where we believe we can build properties of genuine distinction,”
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