According to a report in the New York Post yesterday (16 November), PepsiCo is working on two major acquisitions, in addition to examining the possibility of a business split. Here, just-drinks takes a look at PepsiCo’s acquisition history in both the soft drinks and snacks arena since its CEO, Indra Nooyi, took to the helm five years ago.
- Nooyi kicked off her tenure with the acquisition of self-styled “super premium” juice producer Naked Juice Co in January 2007. The sale went through for an undisclosed sum.
- Six months later and PepsiCo made another purchase. Together with bottler PepsiAmericas, it acquired 80% of Ukrainian juice company Sandora. Several months later, the pair purchased the remaining 20%.
- In the same year, PepsiCo snapped up Brazilian snack firm Comercio de Doces Lucky for an undisclosed sum. Brands included Torcida and Fofura and assets included two manufacturing plants near Sao Paulo.
- In March 2008, PepsiCo teamed up with Pepsi Bottling Group, through their Russian joint-venture PR Beverages, to purchase Sobol-Aqua in Russia for an undisclosed sum.
- March of 2008 was also the month that PR Beverages acquired a majority stake in Russia’s leading branded juice company, JSC Lebedyansky. The company US$1.4bn for a stake of over 75% in the Russian juice company, excluding the company’s baby food and mineral water business.
- Two months later and PepsiCo snapped up the vitamin water brand V Water in the UK and extended its distribution deal with UK-based Britvic to manufacture, sell and distribute the brand. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
- April 2009 was the start of PepsiCo’s move to acquire the outstanding shares in The Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) and PepsiAmericas. PepsiCo owned 33% of the outstanding shares of PBG and 43% of the outstanding shares of PAS. The transaction completed in February 2010 in a US$7.8bn deal.
- In the same month, PepsiCo acquired Peruvian snack business Karinto, in a bid to help it to “transform” its portfolio to include a wide range of products.
- 2010 kicked off with the purchase of Egypt’s International Company for Agro-Industrial Projects (Beyti) by PepsiCo’s joint venture with Almarai, International Dairy and Juice Limited (IDJ), for an undisclosed sum.
- The year ended with the purchase of a 66% stake in Wimm-Bill-Dann for US$3.8bn, making PepsiCo the largest food and beverage group in Russia. It bought the remaining shares in the Russian dairy firm in February 2011.
- Bringing us up to date is the purchase of a 5% stake in noodle and soft drinks producer Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp earlier this month, in exchange for Tingyi taking PepsiCo’s bottling operations in China.
- Last week, PepsiCo’s snacks division also announced the purchase of Brazilian biscuit manufacturer Mabel. As part of the deal, PepsiCo will employ 12,000 people and operate 19 food and beverage manufacturing facilities in Brazil. It was the second biscuit acquisition for PepsiCo this year. The group bought Argentine cookie and cracker producer Dilexis months earlier.