Word: coked
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...Coke has focused on supplementing its signature soda brands with water (Vitamin Water), juice (Odwalla) and other noncarbonated drinks, answering critics who lambasted the company for being a lightweight in the nonsoda segment of the beverage business. To keep up its momentum, Coke recently bought a 40% stake in Honest Tea, an organic-bottled-tea upstart. Pepsi, which owns Gatorade and Tropicana, was already well positioned, so it steadily ramped up its focus on snack foods. Its Frito-Lay division now accounts for 56% of Pepsi's annual retail sales. Over the past decade, that product diversity has helped Pepsi...
...ingredients further added to core expenses, shrinking Pepsi's margins. Even packaging and delivery costs have risen. In response, CEO Indra Nooyi recently announced that the company would lay off 3,300 of its 185,000 workers and close six manufacturing plants, after failing to satisfy analysts' performance expectations. Coke has been less affected by commodity-price growth because it buys a smaller range of ingredients...
...Coke also looked ahead with greater acuity. Analyst Erin Ashley Smith of Argus Research, an independent New York City research firm, says Coke impressed investors with its presciently conservative outlook on the economic climate, while Pepsi started the year with overly optimistic assessments. Smith says Pepsi has had some operational problems as well, noting that the company has periodically had a tough time meeting demand for Gatorade and keeping store shelves stocked - an uncharacteristically subpar performance from a company that prides itself on operational excellence...
...keys to Coke's current strength is its sales growth overseas, particularly in Latin America and emerging markets. Its operating income in Latin America rose 30% in the third quarter, and sales are up 17% in China and 18% in India. Sales fell 2% in North America, while Pepsi's took a 4% drop. Sales of Coke's noncarbonated drinks flattened out last quarter, but Pepsi's sank 5%. (See pictures of the global financial crisis...
...industry titans Coke and Pepsi have marketed against each other for decades, but the bitterest new battleground is China. Coke has grabbed about 54% of China's soda market, according to Euromonitor International, while Pepsi has 31%. And Coke is gunning for more. The giant recently moved to acquire one of China's biggest drinkmakers, the China Huiyuan Juice Co., for about $2.3 billion. The deal still requires government approval, but if completed, it would give Coke control of a rising star that has 46% of China's fresh-juice market...