CSD Priorities to Include Minicans, Flavors, Zero Sugar.
Gatorade Will Look to Deepen Gen Z Ties. Plus, New Energy for Rockstar.
Executives and operators from PepsiCo’s North America bottling system met recently in Las Vegas to discuss market plans for 2025. Ram Krishnan, who took over in January as CEO of PepsiCo Beverages North America, urged the audience
Exec Says PBNA Focus is Total Beverage Portfolio and Profitability.
PepsiCo’s noisy second-quarter earnings report driven by Frito-Lay underperformance overshadowed an improved trend at PepsiCo Beverages North America (PBNA). On July 11, PepsiCo reported organic sales and volume performance that fell short...
The pandemic put a temporary chill on choice as CPG companies waded through supply shortages and retail disruption to keep core products on the shelf. As we move further away from crisis mode, expect to see a return to the kinds of customization and personalization that was growing prior to the global upheaval.
Here are a couple of examples that have come across my desk in recent months:
Dream Tea NYC — A consumer answers a few basic questions so the company can create a personalized small batch tea blend for them. BD’s Laura Stanford, a hot tea drinker, gave the program a try. She chose loose leaf chamomile tea with added lavender, bergamot, and vanilla. The can, which she selected in green, was printed with her first name and a list of tasting notes: honey, smoke, citrus, vanilla, and “inspiration.”
Pax — The product is sold in a resealable pouch containing drink mix packets — three each of Cranberry Cosmo, Margarita, Pineapple Paloma, and Moscow Mule. The flavor mixes can...
STōK RTD Coffee on Fire. Fairlife Core Power Grows Volume and Dollars
June 20, 2024
Danone grew ready-to-drink coffee volume sales during the first quarter of this year by +7.2%, taking an additional +3.2 share points in the category. The result was driven by STōK, which aired...
Gehring Joins List of Possible CEO Successors at Iconic Energy Drink Company
June 20, 2024
Monster Beverage’s announcement last week that the company had appointed Swire Coca-Cola USA President and CEO Rob Gehring as chief growth officer is the latest signal that a significant management succession is underway at one of the world’s largest...
KDP to Acquire Kalil Bottling. Move Follows Effort to Take Back Reyes' Dr Pepper Territory in California
June 6, 2024
Keurig Dr Pepper has agreed to acquire Tucson, Arizona-based Kalil Bottling as KDP continues to bolster its company-owned direct-store-delivery (DSD) operation in the western US. The announcement Friday came weeks after KDP disclosed in a Texas lawsuit that it will not renew a franchise agreement with Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling to distribute Dr Pepper products in California, effective Oct. 27, 2025. Reyes, citing California franchise laws, has asked a California judge to force a renewal unless KDP can show cause for ending the franchise arrangement. That has sent some Dr Pepper bottlers into their contracts to assess termination risk. KDP’s aggressive new stance with Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling has raised industry questions about whether more such moves are planned by KDP as part of a strategy to take back Dr Pepper territory from Coke and Pepsi bottlers. Or, is the Reyes non-renewal simply a special and opportunistic circumstance driven by geography and existing synergies?
PepsiCo and Lipton have launched a Pure Leaf Zero Sugar Sweet Tea nationally in the US. Sweetened with sucralose and acesulfame potassium, the ready-to-drink bottled tea contains no calories. The drink, packaged in an 18.5-oz single-serve carafe, will retail for $2.49 per bottle. It’s the first zero sugar tea produced in the US by the PepsiCo’s Lipton tea joint venture with Unilever. In an interview with BD, North America Pepsi Lipton Partnership GM Julie Raheja-Perera pointed out that...
In the summer of 2021, Dave Burwick’s career path collided with itself. That’s when Boston Beer, the maker of Sam Adams craft beer and Truly Hard Seltzer, announced a partnership with PepsiCo to create Hard Mtn Dew. Burwick was President and CEO of Boston Beer. Earlier in his career, he spent 20 years at PepsiCo, where he once managed the Mtn Dew brand before eventually becoming...
As previously reported by BD, Gatorade Water is now available nationally in the US. The alkaline bottled water is the brand’s first unflavored water. To mark the occasion, PepsiCo rented ...