Fooducate Blog - PepsiCo Returns to Core [read: Junk Food] Products

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PepsiCo Returns to Core [read: Junk Food] Products Posted: 22 Dec 2011 04:53 AM PST Can junk food companies reinvent themselves and start selling healthy food instead? If you ask the CEOs of the big food corporations such as McDonald’s and PepsiCo, the answer is YES, of course. Indra Nooyi, the CEO of PepsiCo has made the “better for you” line of products an integral part of her strategy moving the company forward. Unfortunately that strategy has not been successful, and shareholders have been antsy over the past few years. That’s why they must have been relieved to hear that the company is renewing its focus on “indulgent” brands that make up the core of its business. “We cannot forget about what I call the indulgent core businesses,” Albert Carey, chief executive of PepsiCo Americas Beverages, said at an industry conference … ”If you’re going to do the healthy, you have to do the core, because we still have a very strong business in the core.” Examples, he said, include Frito-Lay “bar food” snacks such as taco-flavored Doritos and hot-wing-flavored Ruffles. Read more… Perhaps PepsiCo didn’t try hard enough in the health food segment? If Gatorade and baked Lays can be considered a healthy choice by the company, perhaps it is better off focusing on selling junk food. At least we all know and can identify it for what it is. It’s actually the sugar laden, artificially colored Gatorade that worries many health professionals, because they see many consumers drinking it thinking it is a healthy beverage. Imagine PepsiCo really making an effort, using its massive infrastructure and logistics centers to promote the consumption of fresh local foods. Imagine if they could create food education centers and teach people to easily prepare home cooked meals. Imagine PepsiCo creating direct connections between farmers and consumers. There are so many out-of-the-box opportunities for a company the size of PepsiCo to try and truly reinvent itself, not by switching from a cola to a Gatorade. Too bad this type of long term thinking is not rewarded by Wall Street.

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