What’s better: a Blue Cloud, or a Red Tree?

For the past decade, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have diverged in the US when it comes to soft drink distribution strategy. Coke owns no soda distribution operations, leaving that in recent years to independent franchised bottlers. On the other hand, PepsiCo owns and operates most of its US bottling distribution system. Now that both companies are seeking a growth path through alcoholic beverages, their strategies in the US have diverged once again.

As you’ll read in today’s issue, PepsiCo is going all-in on the distribution of alcoholic beverages such as Hard Mtn Dew with its Blue Cloud Distribution subsidiary. The company appears...

Coca-Cola has established a federally permitted alcohol subsidiary called Red Tree Beverages to further explore the US alcohol beverage business, Coke’s Chief of New Revenue Streams Dan White told BD in an interview. The unit, created late last year and “firewalled” from Coca-Cola’s non-alcoholic operations, is permitted to...