New York-based PepsiCo prides itself on the diverse portfolio of its iconic brands. Celebrating its 125th anniversary, the company recently rolled out a new logo to refresh the visual identity of the brand.
It also advertised some of its new innovations, including Mountain Dew Baja Blast, during the 2024 Super Bowl. It has been a fan favorite at Taco Bell, one of PepsiCo’s foodservice partners, for more than 20 years.
“It’s got a cult following, hugely popular,” said Chris Yemma, senior director of industry relations at PepsiCo. He and Kent Montgomery, SVP of industry relations and multicultural development, visited with The Griffin Report’s Maggie Kaeppel during the recent FMI Midwinter Executive Conference.
Yemma said PepsiCo is bringing new flavors to Baja Blast and is making it a permanent SKU.
Also featured was Doritos Dinamita Sticks, which has a Hispanic focus.
“If you think about the rise of Gen Z, the most diverse generation in history, we’re really leaning into this intense flavors category,” Yemma said. “Never have we supported Dinamita on this kind of scale.”
The lemon-lime flavored Starry also was featured on the Super Bowl ad platform.
Montgomery said PepsiCo has defined its business as “faster, stronger, better.”
“Faster is the growth for our customers. Typically, that’s what great innovation is. Being the fastest-growing CPG, No. 1 CPG, we have a responsibility to deliver great innovation,” he said.
Stronger includes the capabilities the company brings to its customers, “what’s going to ensure that those products are going to really, truly grow your category incrementally, and not just be redundant. We use a lot of different capabilities to do that,” Montgomery said.
Today’s customers are more mobile. They are looking for convenience and value. They also are more diverse.
“We know that by 2040, 42 percent of all consumers will be multicultural,” Montgomery said, adding it is a business imperative to bring those elements together.
Another innovation is Natu Chips, which are made from plantains and is part of PepsiCo’s Sabritas platform.
“It’s a chip that comes from Mexico, our Sabritas line, which is a very popular line. Those will be launching in different parts of the country,” said Montgomery, adding that it ties into the company’s multicultural consumer play.
“When you look at what’s taking place, whether it’s our Hispanic growth, African American growth, or I would just say multicultural Gen Z growth, all of these types of products, we see those things just really exploding.”
Better includes PepsiCo’s pep+ (pep Positive) people and planet agenda. This includes sustainability and the company’s work with farmers.
“I think there’s a beauty where my job comes together … the development of that whole ecosystem. But when we talk about pep+, we want to talk about our people, what we’re doing to have them flourish, and we want to talk about the planet,” Montgomery said.
PepsiCo has partnered with Tesla and is using trucks with zero emissions, Yemma noted. It also recently announced a paper-based solution for plastic rings on its CSD bottles and cans.
On the snack side, which he said was “a little bit more complex,” PepsiCo is working on finding compostable packaging.
Yemma said its Off the Eaten Path brand at Whole Foods uses compostable bags. “We’re working as fast as we can to try and scale that,” he said.
Read more snacks news from The Shelby Report.
