Asahi Group Holdings is entering India’s non-alcoholic beverage market for the first time, launching its fermented milk drink Calpis through a franchise agreement with PepsiCo bottler Varun Beverages.
The Tokyo-listed group announced the partnership on 18 June. Calpis will be sold in 180ml bottles at Rs20 ($0.21) each, in original and mango variants, with a launch expected in the second half of this year or thereafter. Distribution channel details are still being finalised.
Under the arrangement, Asahi handles product development and technical input through its local subsidiary, which manages marketing and brand oversight. Varun Beverages takes responsibility for manufacturing, distribution, and sales. The bottler operates 53 production facilities across India and overseas and is PepsiCo’s second-largest franchisee outside the United States.
The partnership structure follows directly from a contractual change at Varun. In May, the bottler secured a 10-year extension of its PepsiCo licence to 2049, removing a clause that had previously barred it from pursuing non-PepsiCo business. That removal is what makes this arrangement possible. Non-alcoholic beverage volumes in India grew roughly 2.3 times between 2015 and 2025, according to GlobalData figures cited in Asahi’s announcement. The company ran a comparable franchise arrangement in mainland China in 2025, pairing Calpis Water with KSF Beverage Holdings.
For Asahi, India is already an alcohol export market, with Super Dry lager among its brands there. The Calpis entry extends the group’s Asia presence across beverage formats while Asahi simultaneously pursues a very different kind of expansion. Drinkabl.media’s coverage of the EABL takeover traced Asahi’s $2.3 billion bet on beer in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. India is the non-alcohol counterpart.
The group arrives at this launch under financial pressure. A cyberattack on its Japanese operations contributed to a downgraded full-year 2025 outlook: revenue forecast cut to Y2.89tn from Y2.95tn, and profit attributable to owners revised to Y120bn from Y167.5bn. Full-year results are due in July.
The commercial risk in India is execution, not demand. Varun’s network is the asset, but the bottler’s capacity to manage external franchise commitments alongside its core PepsiCo portfolio at scale has not been tested at depth. Distribution is pending. The launch window is broad. At Rs20, Calpis sits within reach of India’s mass urban consumer, competing in a market where Drinkabl.media has tracked accelerating interest from global beverage brands. Whether it finds retail velocity before better-capitalised competitors consolidate the non-carbonated functional tier is the question Asahi needs to answer before expanding the range or investing more heavily in brand activation.
READ MORE
Kenyan Court Clears Way for Asahi’s $2.3 Billion EABL Takeover
Monster Beverage Posts 95% Sales Growth in China, India as Asia Rewrites the Energy Drink Map
Nestlé’s Yfood Buyout Signals Where Beverage Giants Are Placing Their Next Bets
