The company expects the change to become effective 1 January 2011.
“This is a clear example of using PepsiCo’s broad set of go-to-market systems to best serve our customers,” said Massimo d’Amore, CEO of PepsiCo Beverages Americas. “We remain dedicated to the existing warehouse distribution system for some of our beverage products, but the change to direct store delivery makes sense for Gatorade, as we redefine the sports nutrition category through the G Series.”
This will be the first large-scale step toward optimising delivery systems resulting from the bottling acquisitions earlier this year. The expected synergies related to these changes are included in the company’s target of $400m in pre-tax annualised synergies from the bottling acquisitions once fully implemented by 2012.
“The distribution of Gatorade in key trade channels of Convenience, UDS and Dollar is well suited to the direct store delivery model due to its high velocity, so the switch will result in better store-level customer service,” said Eric Foss, CEO of Pepsi Beverages Company. “By achieving greater speed, simplicity and flexibility, we’ll be able to better serve the current and future needs of our retail customers and consumers in the marketplace.”
Other PepsiCo brands that are warehouse-delivered to the key trade channels of Convenience, UDS and Dollar, including Tropicana, Quaker and Naked Juice, will not be affected by this change.
Source: PepsiCo
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