PepsiCo will report its third-quarter and year-to-date results on Wednesday (16 October). Here just-drinks takes a look at the company’s highs and lows in the three months to the end of September.
- The start of PepsiCo’s H2 was marked by manoeuvrings from one of its largest investors, Nelson Peltz, who made no bones about his desire to see the company buy out snacks rival Mondelez. In July, Peltz said PepsiCo’s current structure was “unsustainable”, and that a takeover of Mondelez was the key to boosting growth.
- By the end of the month, PepsiCo executives had found themselves fighting investor pressure sparked by Peltz. CFO Hugh Johnston called a Mondelez takeover “too risky”, while CEO Indra Nooyi hinted at structural changes ahead in an apparent effort to appease unrest.
- What some were asking though was would a structural shake-up mean a separation of PepsiCo’s food and drinks units? Especially as CSD volumes continued to decline in the US despite better weather.
- Other headaches persisted for PepsiCo. In July it reportedly agreed to drop the “all natural” claim from its Naked Juice brand after settling a US lawsuit that said some ingredients were synthetic. At the end of August, the company confirmed it will offer up to US$75 to any US consumers who could prove they bought the product in the past six years.
- Also in July, PepsiCo said it had set itself a February 2014 deadline to remove a chemical linked to cancer from all its US products.
- PepsiCo lost one of its executives in August when the CEO of its Asia, Middle East and Africa unit, Saad Abdul-Latif, died suddenly. Nooyi called him a “deep personal friend to so many PepsiCo family members”. The next month, PepsiCo appointed Sanjeev Chadha as Abdul-Latif’s replacement.
- In September, PepsiCo appointed Seth Kaufman as its new head of marketing for cola brands in the US.
- In the same month, an analyst said that PepsiCo was beating Coca-Cola in the race to capture the Chinese bottled water market.