PepsiCo was founded in 1902 by American pharmacist and businessman Caleb Bradham as the Pepsi-Cola Company. Bradham, who hoped to emulate the success of Coca-Cola, marketed the beverage from his pharmacy and registered a patent for its recipe the following year. Today, Pepsi is a global company with a portfolio of 23 billion-dollar brands, or brands earning more than $1 billion in annual revenue. Sixteen of these brands are beverage-related, while the remaining seven are associated with snacks and other food products.
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Carbonated beverages
In addition to the original Pepsi-Cola drink, PepsiCo owns:
Mountain Dew and Diet Mountain Dew – a citrus-flavored soft drink acquired by PepsiCo in 1964.
Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max – Pepsi-Cola derivatives that were introduced in 1964 and 1993 respectively.
7 Up – Keurig Dr Pepper owns 7 Up in the North American market, while PepsiCo owns the distribution rights for international markets.
Lipton – in partnership with Unilever, PepsiCo also owns a range of Lipton ready-to-drink tea beverages. One such product is Brisk, a tea and juice brand that surpassed $1 billion in revenue in 2012.
Sierra Mist – a lemon-lime flavored soft drink designed to compete with 7 Up in the North American market.
Non-carbonated beverages
In non-carbonated beverages, PepsiCo owns:
Gatorade – a line of sports-themed beverages and associated food products. Gatorade was originally purchased by the Quaker Oats Company in 1983 that in turn was acquired by PepsiCo in 2000.
Aquafina – a purified bottled water brand derived from municipal tap water. Zero-calorie and zero-carbohydrate flavored water is also sold.
Naked Juice – a smoothie and juice brand acquired by PepsiCo in 2006. Naked Juice also sells coconut water and protein-based smoothies.
Starbucks RTD – in 2015, PepsiCo partnered with Starbucks to market and distribute Starbucks ready-to-drink (RTD) coffee beverages in Latin America.
Snacks and other foods
Lastly, here is a look at some of the non-beverage related brands PepsiCo owns:
Frito-Lay – a potato-chip brand acquired by Pepsi in 1965, now operating as a subsidiary. As part of the deal, PepsiCo gained access to popular snack foods such as Tostitos, Ruffles, and Cheetos.
Doritos – an immensely popular flavored tortilla chip range that Pepsi also acquired in the above deal.
Quaker Oats Company – an American food conglomerate founded in 1850 with a focus on hot and cold breakfast cereals, cookies, barley, and cornmeal. Quaker Oats Company is a relatively recent acquisition for PepsiCo, occurring in 2001.
Key takeaways:
PepsiCo was founded in 1902 by American pharmacist and businessman Caleb Bradham as the Pepsi-Cola Company. Today, PepsiCo has a portfolio of 23 billion-dollar products.
In carbonated beverages, PepsiCo owns Mountain Dew and Pepsi and their respective derivatives. It also owns ready-to-drink Lipton tea and the international distribution rights for 7 Up.
Some of the non-carbonated beverages under Pepsi’s ownership include Gatorade, Aquafina, Naked Juice, and SodaStream. In snacks and other foods, Pepsi took control of several popular potato chip brands after merging with Frito-Lay in 1965.
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.
