Word: coke
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...including Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Kentucky Fried Chicken, which had combined sales of $11 billion. The profits were tasty, but the capital required to build restaurants was giving Pepsi heartburn. Last month the company spun off its main $7 billion bottling operation into an independent public company, something Coke did years ago to create Coca-Cola Enterprises. The soda business actually has two components, the first of which, making and marketing cola concentrate, is very profitable. Mixing that concentrate with carbonated water, putting it in bottles and getting it to you is another capital-intensive business that Pepsi decided...
...spin-off will leave Pepsi's concentrate and bottling setup looking a lot more like Coke's. "It's a better mousetrap," Enrico concedes with a grin. "And there's no pride in this, so why not do it ourselves?" To add to his new mix, Enrico last August spent $3.3 billion on America's leading premium juicemaker, Tropicana. Last year PepsiCo had total sales of $22.3 billion...
Enrico's revolution has already put Pepsi in a position where it can hurt Coke. For the first time in years, the Big Red growth machine is double-clutching, feeling the dark side of globalization in places like Brazil, its third largest market, where the recent devaluation hurt business severely. Coke's sales are also weak across Asia, and the company's huge investment in Russia is underwater. Pepsi needs to make a dent in Coke away from home, because the Atlantans derive most of their profits outside the U.S., where Coke outsells Pepsi...
...home, Pepsi's restructuring--and the cash thrown off by the IPO--allows it to take dead aim at Coke's near monopoly in fountain soda sales. It's a hugely important part of the business. Pepsi holds its own in grocery and discount stores, but the fountain business gushes profits for Coke. Now, free of the restaurant business ("Why buy from one of your competitors?" Coke sales reps used to be able to say to fast-food operators), Pepsi can become more effective. Even if the campaign doesn't win many big accounts--it did win Bojangles and Pizza...
Enrico is also enlisting a powerful ally in this campaign--Frito-Lay, the Dallas-based subsidiary that is to snacks what Coke is to sodas. Frito accounts for two-thirds of Pepsi's sales and profits, and it is one of the most efficient companies in the world at getting products to retail via its truck routes. In the past, Pepsi did little to leverage Frito's commanding position as America's premier snack company. Now it intends to use Frito's muscle as a wedge for all PepsiCo products...