PepsiCo has divested its North India bottling operations to its franchisee bottling partner, Varun Beverages.

The deal states transfer of four plants and two co-packing units spread across Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab with over 900 direct employees. With the exception of Bihar, the entire Pepsico north and east India bottling operations will come under RJ Corp, which owns Varun Beverages.

With the latest acquisition, Varun Beverages will own 13 PepsiCo bottling plants. At present, the company owns 19 such plants including in overseas markets like Sri Lanka, Mozambique, Zambia and Morocco.

PepsiCo operates 10 company-owned manufacturing facilities in the south and west India. Also, there are three franchisee operations in the west and south. Last year, PepsiCo announced an investment of Rs 33,000 crore by it and its bottling partners, by 2020, to step up its manufacturing and go-to-market infrastructure in India.

RJ Corp has business interests across restaurants, ice-cream, education, hotels and real estate. It also possesses the franchisee rights for quick service restaurants Pizza Hut and KFC along with exclusive franchise rights for UK cafe chain Costa Coffee.