GLOBAL: PepsiCo in US$30bn health push

PepsiCo has confirmed that it is planning to triple sales from healthy food and drink with the launch of several new products.

PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi revealed the plan in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, published yesterday (31 January).

The move is part of a strategy to treble the group's $10bn global healthy food and drinks revenues over a decade, with a focus on its “good for you” ranges, such as Tropicana juice.

A spokesperson for PepsiCo told just-drinks today (1 February): “Right now our revenues are around $43bn. What Indra is saying is that today, about $10bn of our revenues comes from products that are healthy, whether they’re oatmeal or orange juice. Over the next ten years PepsiCo would like to triple that, so Indra would like $30bn of our revenues to come from those types of products.”

He added: “By doing that, we’ve hired a whole staff of research and development people, including a chief scientific officer, we’re investing in research and development, we’re looking at ways to make our ‘good for you’ products healthier and we’re also looking at developing healthier new products.”

In the Telegraph interview, Nooyi said that PepsiCo plans to develop a nutritional drink aimed at children, although she added that the firm does not market to children under 12 years of age.

The chief executive said that it does not market to children under 12 years, a stated goal of the company, but added that it is “very careful” on nutrition for kids”.

Last month, PepsiCo announced plans to open a research and development facility in the US, to focus on the development of healthier products.

The laboratory will be located in New Haven and again, marks a major shift by the firm to fundamentally improve the nutritional profile of its products.