South African soft drink mogul Ken Clark is starting a new chapter after two decades spent building a challenger brand in the Eastern Cape.
This comes after Varun Beverages Ltd. decided to buy South Africa’s Twizza in an all cash deal that pushes the PepsiCo bottler deeper into the continent.
The move was welcomed by company shareholders. Varun Beverages’ board approved the acquisition in December, extending a playbook it has used since buying Bevco in 2024 to consolidate rights in Southern Africa. Company officials have said South Africa has been growing at a mid double digit pace within its international business.
The Indian company confirmed its South African unit, The Beverages Company Proprietary Ltd., known as Bevco, will acquire 100% of Twizza at an enterprise value of ZAR 2.1 billion about $125 million, payable in cash.
The purchase is expected to close on or before June 30, 2026, subject to regulatory approvals including competition authorities in South Africa, Botswana and Eswatini. Twizza will become a step down subsidiary once the transaction is completed.
Extraordinary Business Leader: Clark
Born to a sheep and cattle farmer in the Dordrecht district, he returned from conscription in the South African Defence Force and struck out on his own in 1980 with five cows. He grew fast, then chased margins by turning raw milk into packaged product, launching Crickley Dairy from an 80 square meter rented shop in the mid 1980s.
Clark did not have a plan to start Twizza. He began looking seriously at carbonated soft drinks in the early 2000s, traveling through Europe to scout equipment and recipes. In 2003 he launched Twizza in Queenstown, now Komani, selling an affordable range into townships and small retailers that big brands often serve through longer, pricier chains.
Twizza opened a Middelburg facility in 2012 and added Cape Town in 2015, giving it a manufacturing triangle across inland and coastal routes. It now operates three plants in Cape Town, Komani and Middelburg, with combined annual capacity of about 100 million cases, plus backward integration that includes five preform lines and a closure line.
That footprint is what Varun Beverages is paying for, along with an own brand portfolio of non alcoholic drinks that can sit beside the PepsiCo lineup already bottled by Bevco. Twizza’s turnover was 1,689 million rand in its latest reported year, and it sold about 71 million eight ounce cases, according to figures cited in Indian disclosures.
