In 1965, PepsiCo acquired Frito-Lay in what the chairmen of both companies called a “marriage made in heaven”. The resultant company transformed PepsiCo from a soft drink organization and set it on a path to becoming one of the world’s leading food and beverage companies. Today, PepsiCo claims to operate in more than 200 countries and territories around the world with seven distinct divisions and many successful brands.
Competitor
Description
Key Insights
Competitive Overlap
Differentiation
The Coca-Cola Company
A multinational beverage company known for its soft drinks, including Coca-Cola, Sprite, and Fanta. Coca-Cola competes directly with PepsiCo in the carbonated soft drink market.
Coca-Cola offers a wide range of soft drinks, directly competing with PepsiCo in the carbonated soft drink market.
Both compete in the carbonated soft drink market, offering a variety of soda brands and flavors, but with distinct brand identities and recipes.
Coca-Cola’s iconic brands and unique soda recipes.
Dr Pepper Snapple Group
A beverage company known for brands like Dr Pepper, Snapple, and 7UP, offering carbonated soft drinks and non-carbonated beverages. Dr Pepper Snapple Group competes with PepsiCo in the soft drink and beverage market.
Dr Pepper Snapple Group provides a variety of soft drinks and non-carbonated beverages, sometimes overlapping with PepsiCo in the soft drink and beverage segments.
Both compete in the soft drink and beverage market, offering a mix of carbonated and non-carbonated beverage brands, but with unique flavor profiles and products.
Dr Pepper Snapple Group’s distinct soft drink brands and flavors.
Keurig Dr Pepper
A beverage company formed by the merger of Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper Snapple Group, offering a wide range of beverages, including coffee and soft drinks. Keurig Dr Pepper competes with PepsiCo in the coffee, tea, and soft drink market.
Keurig Dr Pepper offers a diverse portfolio of beverages, sometimes overlapping with PepsiCo in the coffee, tea, and soft drink segments.
Both compete in the coffee, tea, and soft drink market, providing a variety of beverage options, but with Keurig Dr Pepper’s focus on coffee and cold beverages.
Keurig Dr Pepper’s extensive coffee and cold beverage offerings.
Nestlé Waters
A division of Nestlé specializing in bottled water, including brands like Nestlé Pure Life and Perrier. Nestlé Waters competes with PepsiCo in the bottled water and beverage market.
Nestlé Waters offers a range of bottled water brands, sometimes overlapping with PepsiCo in the bottled water and beverage segments.
Both compete in the bottled water and beverage market, with Nestlé Waters focusing on bottled water brands and sparkling water products.
Nestlé Waters’ bottled water and sparkling water offerings.
Mondelez International
A multinational snack and confectionery company known for brands like Oreo, Cadbury, and Ritz. Mondelez International competes with PepsiCo in the snack and confectionery market.
Mondelez International provides a wide variety of snacks and confectionery products, sometimes overlapping with PepsiCo in the snack and confectionery segments.
Both compete in the snack and confectionery market, offering a range of snack brands and flavors, but with Mondelez International’s focus on confectionery items.
Mondelez International’s iconic confectionery brands and products.
General Mills
A multinational food company known for its cereal brands like Cheerios, as well as snacks and yogurt products. General Mills competes with PepsiCo in the snack and cereal market.
General Mills offers cereal, snacks, and yogurt products, often overlapping with PepsiCo in the snack and cereal segments.
Both compete in the snack and cereal market, providing a range of snack items and cereals, but with General Mills’ specialization in breakfast cereals.
General Mills’ breakfast cereal brands and breakfast products.
The Kraft Heinz Company
A multinational food company known for its condiments, sauces, and packaged food products. Kraft Heinz competes with PepsiCo in the packaged food and condiments market.
Kraft Heinz provides condiments, sauces, and packaged food products, sometimes overlapping with PepsiCo in the packaged food and condiments segments.
Both compete in the packaged food and condiments market, offering a variety of food items, but with Kraft Heinz’s emphasis on condiments and sauces.
Kraft Heinz’s iconic condiment brands and packaged food offerings.
Danone
A multinational food and beverage company known for its dairy products, including brands like Activia and Oikos. Danone competes with PepsiCo in the dairy and yogurt market.
Danone offers dairy and yogurt products, sometimes overlapping with PepsiCo in the dairy and yogurt segments.
Both compete in the dairy and yogurt market, providing a range of dairy-based items, but with Danone’s focus on yogurt and probiotic products.
Danone’s yogurt brands and probiotic offerings.
Frito-Lay
A subsidiary of PepsiCo known for its snack brands, including Lay’s, Doritos, and Tostitos. Frito-Lay competes with PepsiCo in the snack and chip market.
Frito-Lay offers a wide variety of snack brands and chips, sometimes overlapping with other PepsiCo divisions in the snack and chip segments.
Both compete in the snack and chip market, providing a range of snack products, but with Frito-Lay’s specialization in chips and savory snacks.
Frito-Lay’s iconic chip brands and savory snacks.
Hershey
A multinational confectionery company known for its chocolate bars and candies, including brands like Hershey’s and Reese’s. Hershey competes with PepsiCo in the confectionery market.
Hershey offers a variety of chocolate and confectionery products, sometimes overlapping with PepsiCo in the confectionery segments.
Both compete in the confectionery market, offering a range of chocolate and candy brands, but with Hershey’s focus on chocolate confections.
Hershey’s chocolate confectionery brands and products.
Table of Contents
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is generally accepted as PepsiCo’s largest competitor.
The company enjoys superior brand recognition and equity worldwide, though an exclusive focus on beverages means Coca-Cola has a slightly less diversified product portfolio than Pepsi. Nevertheless, the Coca-Cola beverage itself outsells the Pepsi equivalent in some markets. The company also owns more than 500 beverage brands in various categories, including soft drinks, water, juices, coffee, and sports drinks.
The company has a portfolio of more than 125 owned, licensed, partnered, and allied brands. These include Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Dr Pepper, Sunkist, Schweppes, Snapple, Vita Coco, Clamato, and Swiss Miss.
Kellogg’s
Kellogg’s is an American multinational food manufacturing company founded by Will Keith Kellogg in 1906.
Kellogg’s competes with PepsiCo-owned Quaker Foods Company in the breakfast food market. In addition to traditional cereals, Kellogg’s produces cookies, crackers, protein bars, frozen waffles, and fruit-flavored snacks.
Mondelez International is an American confectionery, food, and beverage company founded in 1923 by Thomas H. McInnerney as Kraft Foods Inc.
In 2012, Kraft Foods Inc was renamed Mondelez while retaining its snack food business. The international company has several billion-dollar components, including Oreo, Toblerone, and powdered-beverage brand Tang.
Mondelez also owns several cookie and cracker brands that compete with PepsiCo’s dip, potato chip, rice, pasta-based snacks and ready-to-eat meals.
There are around 39 different drinks under the Monster brand in North America. Like competitor Red Bull, the company has aggressively marketed its products by affiliating itself with extreme sports events. Monster also has a strong presence in the music industry, supporting the world tours of many famous artists.
Monster’s typically high-caffeine drinks compete directly with Pepsi-owned Gatorade and a recently released line of Mountain Dew energy drinks.
Key takeaways:
After acquiring Frito-Lay in 1965, PepsiCo became much more than a simple soft drink company. Today, the company is a leading beverage and snack producer, operating in most of the world’s countries and territories.
The Coca-Cola Company is the most significant threat to Pepsi’s success, with a more valuable brand and higher market share in the crucial North American market. Similarly, Keurig Dr Pepper with its 21% beverage market share is also a significant player.
Kellogg’s and Mondelez International are two of Pepsi’s largest competitors in the snack food industry. In the lucrative energy drink industry, Monster Beverage Corporation has almost 40% of the market cornered.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
