VARUN BEVERAGES LIMITED

When Ravi Kant Jaipuria announced that he wanted to become a franchisee for fast food chain Pizza Hut, his family -- especially his father -- was horrified. Like most conservative Marwari vegetarian families, say associates, they disapproved of any business where meat was on the menu. But Jaipuria wasn't about to be stopped by such trifling considerations. Today, he's Pizza Hut's largest Indian franchisee with 65 + restaurants in north and eastern India that are churning out piping hot pizzas throughout the day. He has already sunk over Rs 125 crore into the burgeoning business and will be opening 10 more outlets by year-end. And he isn't stopping there. Says the portly but suave businessman: "By 2010 I will have 125 outlets in every city and major town in the north and east." It's an ambitious gameplan that's typical of Ravi Jaipuria, the youngest of the three Delhi-based Jaipuria brothers. First and foremost, he's India's bottling king with eight soft drinks plants sending out millions of Pepsi bottles into the market annually. Industry experts reckons he has control over 25 per cent to 30 per cent of the soft drinks production in the country -- more than 1000 million cases. He once won a coveted award as PepsiCo's top bottler in the world. The award was presented by ex-President George Bush [ Images ] Sr and Jaipuria took 16 members of his family for the ceremonies in Hawaii. Pepsi had a tough time finding the right food for the staunchly vegetarian family. But Jaipuria isn't content with being Pepsi's largest bottler. He has made a series of moves and diversified into everything from ice creams and schools to hotels and real estate. The result is a Rs 2,000 crore empire, which he says is growing at over 20 per cent annually.