Vikas Bhatia Takes The Operating Chair At A Sixty-Year-Old Brewer
DeVANS Modern Breweries has appointed Vikas Bhatia as Chief Operating Officer, in a brief that reads as commercial rather than operational despite the title.
- Role: Chief Operating Officer, DeVANS Modern Breweries Limited
- Scope: market development, operational excellence, commercial execution, new growth
- Experience: more than 30 years across sales, marketing and commercial leadership
- Previously: Red Bull, SABMiller, Diageo, Radico and Kraft Heinz
- Company: founded 1961, four manufacturing units
What The Vikas Bhatia Appointment Is For
DeVANS states it has moved from a liquor bottling business into a diversified beverage company spanning beer and premium spirits, with the manufacturing footprint growing from one unit to four under Chairman and Managing Director Prem Dewan.
That is a manufacturing story, and manufacturing is not the constraint any more. A company that can make more than it sells needs commercial capability, which is what the four items in this brief describe: market development, execution, and finding where the next volume comes from.
An Unusually Wide Category Record
Red Bull, SABMiller, Diageo, Radico and Kraft Heinz is a list that spans energy drinks, beer, imported and Indian spirits, and packaged food. Those are four different distribution problems: beer and spirits are state-regulated and route-to-market is a licence question, while energy drinks and food are fought over modern trade shelves.
An operator who has worked both sides is useful to a company holding beer and premium spirits at once, because the two halves of that portfolio cannot be sold the same way and are usually run by people who only know one.
The Audience The Company Has Named
Prem Dewan tied the appointment to building on six decades and strengthening DeVANS into one of India's premier beverage companies, citing commercial development and market expansion as what Bhatia brings.
Bhatia's own framing was narrower and more testable: strengthening commercial execution, exploring new markets, and building a platform for long-term growth. The company has said it is going after younger legal-age consumers through product innovation and cultural relevance, which in this category is decided by what reaches the shelf as much as by what reaches the audience.
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