During Beverage Digest’s recent Future Smarts conference in New York, Editor & Publisher Duane Stanford conducted on-stage interviews with two of the largest independent PepsiCo and Coca-Cola bottlers in the US, Matthew Dent and Dave Katz. Below are key takeaways from those discussions.

Matthew Dent
President & CEO
Buffalo Rock

PRICING GROWTH OUTLOOK. “There's going to have to be a study around the effect on elasticities during the pandemic and what that did for our products,” Dent said, adding that price elasticities are

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Last week, Coca-Cola and Keurig Dr Pepper joined PepsiCo in reassuring investors that — for now at least — US consumers are still willing to spend on packaged refreshment beverages. More importantly, executives at the companies insisted they know how to adjust if consumers get skittish. Coca-Cola reported third-quarter earnings on Oct. 24, followed by Keurig Dr Pepper on Oct. 26. PepsiCo had already reported its third quarter on...