My wife and I got away late last month for a vacation to Southern Italy’s Amalfi Coast. I was taking some time off but couldn’t help making a few casual beverage observations.

First, when it comes to carbonated soft drinks, Coca-Cola appears to dominate the region. From the small local market near our Airbnb rental in tiny Conca dei Marini, to the trendy restaurants in mid-size Sorrento, there was always a Coke for sale. We didn’t stumble on a Pepsi until we hit a market in the much larger city of Naples.

While this was no formal survey, the disparity actually makes sense to me, knowing something about Coca-Cola’s and PepsiCo’s global strategies. PepsiCo’s global beverage expansion strategy has historically focused...

Beverage Digest hosted its annual Future Smarts conference last December in New York City. The day’s lineup of speakers included leaders from three of the largest US beverage companies — Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Keurig Dr Pepper. The executives sat for interviews on stage with Beverage Digest Editor & Publisher Duane Stanford. Here are highlights as the speakers looked ahead to 2025...

As promised, Suja Life has relaunched former PepsiCo brand Slice as a functional “healthy” soda with prebiotics and probiotics. Suja enters a gut soda market lead by brands such as Olipop and Poppi and replete with incoming competition. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo also are expected to enter the segment this year. Launched by PepsiCo in 1984 as a fruit flavored soda with 10% juice, Slice was...