FDBusiness.com

PepsiCo has expanding its portfolio of brands, which each generate more than $1 billion in annual retail sales, to 22 with the recent addition of Diet Mountain Dew, Brisk and Starbucks ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages. The US-based beverages and snacks giant has doubled the size of its billion-dollar brand portfolio since 2000, adding five new billion-dollar brands in the past five years.

First introduced in 1988, Diet Mountain Dew became the company’s eighth carbonated soft drink brand to reach the billion-dollar annual retail sales milestone. PepsiCo has manufactured and distributed Brisk and Starbucks RTD beverages through successful joint venture partnerships with Unilever and Starbucks, respectively, since the early 1990s.

Brisk is sold under the Pepsi Lipton Tea Partnership, a successful joint venture formed between PepsiCo and Unilever in 1991 focused on manufacturing and marketing ready-to-drink tea beverages. PepsiCo, through the Pepsi Lipton Tea Partnership, is the RTD tea category leader in several markets around the world, including the US and Western and Eastern Europe. 

PepsiCo and Starbucks largely created the North American RTD coffee category in 1994 when they formed the North American Coffee Partnership, a successful joint venture under which PepsiCo manufactures and distributes Starbucks RTD, single-serve coffee beverages.

The growth of Diet Mountain Dew, Brisk and Starbucks RTD beverages gives PepsiCo 14 billion-dollar beverage brands.

“Our ability to accelerate the growth of our billion-dollar brand portfolio with Diet Mountain Dew, Brisk and Starbucks reflects the success of our product marketing and innovation initiatives, the strength of our joint venture partnerships and the power of our distribution systems,” says Indra Nooyi, chairman and chief executive of PepsiCo. “We remain laser focused on continuing to strengthen and grow our entire global brand portfolio.”

PepsiCo also has eight billion-dollar food brands, the largest of which is Lay’s. The growth of the Lay’s portfolio has been driven by expansion in many international markets, including several key emerging economies like Russia, where Lay’s is getting ready to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

The company’s billion-dollar brand portfolio is comprised of: Aquafina, Brisk, Cheetos, Diet Mountain Dew, Diet Pepsi, Doritos, Fritos, Gatorade, Lay’s, Lipton, Mirinda, Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Pepsi Max, Ruffles, Quaker, 7UP (outside the US), Sierra Mist, Starbucks RTD beverages, Tostitos, Tropicana and Walkers.