By D Shivakumar

At PepsiCo, there was a task force which was set up. We trained 16,000 people. We have got the entire ecosystem together, done courses, training programmes, clearing of invoices and bills. Its not a small exercise. This task force worked with consultants, with the government. Once the tax rates came, we calculated what happens to us, what happens to industry, what goes up or down, because in different states it could be different. We are fully prepared on what we needed to do, spoke to all ecosystem partners modern trade partners who have their own set of challenges, bottlers whom we need to work with, distributors so that everyone is aware of what they are doing and the other way round. We have worked as closely as possible with all people concerned and resolved issues as early as possible.

ON CHALLENGES The FMCG industry is 9.9 million retail outlets. So educating everybody in the ecosystem, getting wholesalers to keep track of their bills and inventory is a huge change that needs to happen, and its not a change one company can do. But as a consortium, companies can do that. How do you digitise the whole FMCG channel is something that is of paramount importance to the entire industry after GST. The need is even higher after GST.

ON TRANSITION OR UNSOLD STOCKS Weve cut down dramatically on stocks. While every company has cut down, we have cut down even more. Our distributors operate on very thin stocks. Our big distributors are operating with three-day stocks, thats it. So in our case the pipeline is very thin; that is the advantage that will accrue. We can top up very quickly, so we don't have the challenge of unsold stocks, or transition stocks both in case of snacks and beverages.

(D Shivakumar is Chairman, PepsiCo India)

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PepsiCo got the ecosystem together for GST - Economic Times