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...

The sale process for bankrupt Bang Energy may finally be headed for a conclusion in late June after a two month delay. A bankruptcy judge in Florida has set a sale hearing date for June 30 to approve a winning bidder. That hearing date could yet be pushed back, however. According to BD sources, remaining bidders are...

Input Costs Still Elevated, Tracking Inflation. Volatility Expected.

Independent Coca-Cola and PepsiCo bottlers generally anticipate average annual retail carbonated soft drink pricing growth of between +3.0% and +6.0% during the next five years, an informal BD survey found. US CSD pricing at retail in 2022 reached almost +15.0%. Some bottlers said pricing growth will likely trend in the +7.0% to +9.0% range. Outliers predicted...

The big story of 2022 was surprisingly low price elasticities in the US for carbonated soft drinks as manufacturers raised prices to offset runaway costs for everything from labor to packaging. At retail last year, CSD pricing jumped almost +14.8% last year, driving category dollar sales up more than...

G&J Pepsi-Cola Bottlers, PepsiCo’s largest fully independent US franchise bottler, is preparing to distribute Hard Mtn Dew on the same “blue trucks” that distribute Pepsi-Cola and other non-alcoholic brands. In an interview at BD’s Future Smarts conference in New York on Dec. 5, G&J CEO Tim Trant said the Cincinnati-based company has applied for beer distribution licenses ...