PepsiCo is set to report its first-quarter results on Thursday (26 April). Here, just-drinks takes a look at the highs and lows for the company in the three months to the end of March.
- In January, PepsiCo boasted that three more of its brands had broken the US$1bn annual sales barrier. It brought the number of billion-dollar brands in the PepsiCo stable to 22.
- PepsiCo executives started the year denying a newspaper report that they were to cut 4,000 jobs. The reports were right, however: in February the company announced that it would cut 8,700 jobs, or 3% of its global workforce. The cuts were part of a cost-saving programme.
- The next day, the company gave its US soft drinks division 18 to 24 months to shape up or face a strategy overhaul. CEO Indra Nooyi said the unit was the only one in the company underperforming.
- At the start of March, PepsiCo sold US$2.75bn of debt in bond issues. The company said it was seeking to return more cash to shareholders in 2012.
- Finally, a deal with Chinese food-and-drink maker Tingyi received the green light from China’s regulators at the tail end of the quarter. Under the deal, Tingyi took over PepsiCo’s entire soft drinks bottling business in China in exchange for a 5% interest in its business unit.