PepsiCo, L'Oréal, Carrier among firms set to create 5,000 jobs in India

New Delhi: Leading multinational and domestic consumer companies will create close to 5,000 fresh jobs across new manufacturing capacities and global capability centres (GCC) over the next two years, betting on India's buoyant consumer market while global markets have slowed down.

PepsiCo on Tuesday said it is setting up a new ₹1,266-crore manufacturing facility for beverage flavours in Ujjain, with a potential to hire about 500 employees. McDonald's and L'Oreal are in the process of hiring for their upcoming GCCs in India, while Carrier Global said it has plans to hire 1,500 employees for its new $100-million plant in Sri City and Haleon (formerly GSK Consumer Healthcare) is starting local production for the first time. Carlsberg, and Dabur too are expanding existing digital centres in the country with fresh direct employment.

"India continues to be a strategic growth market for us globally," Eugene Willemsen, CEO, international beverages, at PepsiCo said while announcing the company's second flavour manufacturing plant in India and ninth globally.


Executives at search firms said hiring is happening across roles and functions, and most of the hiring is local. "Talent shifts have created new job opportunities in India," said Sonal Bahl, partner at Positive Moves Consulting. "GCCs now offer global mandates, faster decision-making, exposure to enterprise-wide transformation and career paths that are often comparable to, or even more attractive than traditional business roles," she added.

Beauty company L'Oreal, which is investing ₹3,500 crore for its first global tech hub in Hyderabad, said it will create 2,000 skilled jobs by 2030.

Haleon, maker of Sensodyne toothpaste and Centrum supplements, is setting up a ₹2,000-crore facility in Madhya Pradesh. It is expected to create up to 500 jobs besides indirect ones "with a strong focus on leveraging skill development, local talent and supplier ecosystems," said Kedar Lele, India chief executive and South Asia president of Haleon.

"When you look at the areas that we're interested in, it's hard for me to believe that there's going to be any year in coming decade where we don't grow at least double digits in India," Carrier global CEO David Gitlin told ET. He said Carrier plans to increase hiring in India from 5,000 to 6,500 over next four years.

Dabur's upcoming facility in Tamil Nadu has the potential to generate direct employment for around 250 people, chief executive Mohit Malhotra said. "We have committed an investment of ₹400 crore...with nearly one-third of the investment already under execution," he said.

HSBC in a purchasing managers index survey on Tuesday said while India's private-sector activity lost some momentum in June, it remained above its long-term average, helped by resilient domestic demand and improving manufacturing conditions.

Denmark's Carlsberg Group is in the process of employing over 300 professionals in the first phase for its first-ever IT GCC coming up in Gurugram. The centre "will strengthen the brewer's IT backbone, accelerate digital transformation, and embed new capabilities," Carlsberg Group CIO Esther Wu said in a statement.