Pepsico

PepsiCo Inc. is cutting jobs and closing factories to give it some "breathing room" to navigate the volatility that has permeated all corners of the global economy. The maker of Pepsi-Cola, Doritos and Sun Chips said it planned to eliminate 3,300 jobs and close six plants in an effort to save $1.2 billion over three years. It plans to use the savings primarily to revive lagging U.S. soft drink sales. "This will enable our competitiveness and give us breathing room to respond," Chief Executive Indra Nooyi said.

Heard of cola chicken? China has. It's a popular dish in the huge nation, where Pepsi soda and Lay's potato chips have introduced Pepsi-chicken chips. That's right -- chips made to taste like Pepsi and chicken. Together. Cola chicken is chicken wings stir-fried in a wok with a caramelized sauce of cola, soy sauce and other seasonings. In L.A., you can find the dish at dim sum palace Elite.  PepsiCo came up with the idea during a brainstorming session among its marketing and R&D teams and its Shanghai ad agency, according to AdAge.

Heard of cola chicken? China has. It's a popular dish in the huge nation, where Pepsi soda and Lay's potato chips have introduced Pepsi-chicken chips. That's right -- chips made to taste like Pepsi and chicken. Together. Cola chicken is chicken wings stir-fried in a wok with a caramelized sauce of cola, soy sauce and other seasonings. In L.A., you can find the dish at dim sum palace Elite.  PepsiCo came up with the idea during a brainstorming session among its marketing and R&D teams and its Shanghai ad agency, according to AdAge.

At first glance, it seems innocent enough that Diet Pepsi is tweaking its formula to stay sweet a little while longer. The soda's current sweetener -- aspartame -- loses its potency faster than high fructose corn syrup, the sweetener that's used in most regular sodas. To remedy that, PepsiCo is reportedly experimenting with other sweetener mixes. A new-and-improved version could be unveiled next year. The company told the Associated Press that it's "always looking at ways to provide the best consumer experience.

Two men who contend PepsiCo Inc. stole their idea to sell bottled water sued the snack- and drink-maker in Wisconsin and won a $1.26-billion judgment last month after the company didn't respond. PepsiCo, which calls the accusation "dubious," says it didn't know about the lawsuit until almost a week after the court granted the award without a trial. The company wants the court to toss out the ruling, known as a default judgment, or at least give PepsiCo a chance to fight the accusation.

Soft drink companies usually get a bad rap in the raging debate about obesity. So it would seem encouraging that PepsiCo recently opened a research lab to study and develop more healthful products. And it happens to be right next to Yale University. This Hartford Courant story describes the connection this way: "The lab has no formal affiliation with Yale, but it operates near the campus and the researchers say they hope to benefit from their proximity to the university's resources.

It's an environmental as well as a marketing achievement: using 100% agricultural waste to make a top-quality plastic bottle that can then be placed back in the existing recycling system. "It's closing the loop," said Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "It's the beginning of the end for petroleum-based plastic bottles. " PepsiCo announced Tuesday that it had "cracked the code," inventing what it calls the world's first plastic bottle made entirely from plant-based, fully renewable resources.

Pepsico Inc. said its second-quarter net income came to $256 million, compared to a loss of $42.5 million resulting from a restructuring in the same period a year earlier. Revenue for the three-month period ended June 15 rose 7% to $1.94 billion from $1.82 billion, the company said. The Purchase, N.Y.-based concern said it had strong operating earnings growth of 29% in both the second quarter and in the first half of the year.

PepsiCo Inc. said it was reorganizing to create three operational units. The old structure had two divisions: PepsiCo North America and PepsiCo International. PepsiCo Americas Foods will include Frito-Lay North America, Quaker and its fast-growing Sabritas and Gamesa brands in Mexico. PepsiCo Americas Beverages will include Pepsi-Cola North America, Gatorade, Tropicana and all Latin American beverage businesses.

PepsiCo Inc. agreed to buy Naked Juice Co. of Azusa to expand sales of natural-juice drinks and compete with Coca-Cola Co.'s Odwalla brand. Naked Juice makes 25 fortified drinks, including a pineapple-banana protein shake. The company has annual sales of more than $150 million, the companies said Tuesday. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. PepsiCo acquired more healthful beverage and food companies including Stacy's Pita Chips in the last year to lure consumers shunning sugary sodas.

PepsiCo Inc., the maker of Gatorade sports drinks and Tropicana juice, expects its alliance with Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp. to lift Chinabeverage volumes from the third quarter. The deal, which was approved byChina'sMinistry of Commerce in March, will see Tingyi's drinks unit become the franchise bottler in China for PepsiCo. The Tingyi unit will partner with current PepsiCo bottlers to make, sell and distribute sodas and Gatorade drinks as the U.S. company invests to narrow the gap withCoca-Cola Co.in the world's second-largest economy.

PepsiCo  Inc., the international food and beverage giant that owns Tropicana, Gatorade, Frito-Lay and other brands, shuffled some of its top management positions in an attempt to create a line of succession behind current chairman and chief executive Indra K. Nooyi. Brian Cornell, recently chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s Sam's Club division, is returning to the fold as chief executive of PepsiCo Americas Food. He's replacing John Compton, who will take on the new position of president of PepsiCo.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest says its testing has found "high levels" of an animal carcinogen, 4-methylimidazole, in Coca-Cola and Pepsi cola drinks. The chemical is a result of the process used to give the colas -- including the diet versions -- their caramel coloring. But the federal Food and Drug Administration said there is not much to worry about, according to Bloomberg News. Agency spokesman Douglass Karas said Monday in a statement that a human would have to drink more than a thousand cans of the drinks in a day to reach the chemical level shown to cause cancer in rodents.  And the American Beverage Assn.

There's more to Naked Juice than the Monrovia juice company promotes in its advertising, according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The lawsuit accuses Naked Juice and parent company PepsiCo Inc. of marketing juice products as "all natural" when they actually contain "unnaturally processed and synthetic ingredients. " Those ingredients include zinc oxide, ascorbic acid, cyanocobalamin and others. "Consumers were deceived into believing that the unnatural products were in fact natural substances," but were actually created through "artificial and mechanical means," the lawsuit said.

In an effort to forestall proposed government regulation of food and beverage products that can be advertised to children, some of the biggest companies in the industry have put forth their own, self-imposed measures. The industry's plan targets a number of food types, including juices, dairy products, grains, soups and meals. It holds companies to limits on the amount of calories, sugar, sodium and saturated fat allowed in foods promoted to children. The self-imposed regulations, announced Thursday, would give companies time to make adjustments.

It's an environmental as well as a marketing achievement: using 100% agricultural waste to make a top-quality plastic bottle that can then be placed back in the existing recycling system. "It's closing the loop," said Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "It's the beginning of the end for petroleum-based plastic bottles. " PepsiCo announced Tuesday that it had "cracked the code," inventing what it calls the world's first plastic bottle made entirely from plant-based, fully renewable resources.

PepsiCo Inc. sold its Quaker Oats bagged-cereal business to closely held Malt-O-Meal Co. for an undisclosed price to focus on more-profitable boxed-cereal brands such as Cap'n Crunch. The bagged-cereal unit includes brands such as Quaker Frosted Shredded Wheat. The business represented about 5% of Quaker's North American food sales last year, PepsiCo said. Shares of PepsiCo rose 69 cents to $42.90 on the NYSE.

Michael H. Jordan, a skilled troubleshooter who held leadership roles at CBS, PepsiCo and Westinghouse, died Tuesday in New York from complications related to cancer, CBS Corp. announced. He was 73. Jordan was instrumental in crafting the media conglomerate that became the CBS of today as its chairman and chief executive. As the top executive at Westinghouse Electric Corp., he engineered the acquisition of CBS in 1995. He later shed Westinghouse's industrial businesses and kept the media business.

Battling back from a dismal 2009, Gatorade is refocusing on competitive athletes, and a new ad campaign seeks to carve out a market for three workout beverages. The Chicago-based unit of PepsiCo Inc. is airing commercials that promote its G Series, a trio of drinks it introduced last year that target student athletes' needs before, during and after a workout or athletic event. "It's a more holistic view," said Morgan Flatley, director of consumer engagement at Gatorade. "In our mind there's a tremendous amount of opportunity for the types of product we can deliver in the future for before, during and after activities," Flatley added, hinting at Gatorade's plans to introduce products other than beverages next year.

Soft drink companies usually get a bad rap in the raging debate about obesity. So it would seem encouraging that PepsiCo recently opened a research lab to study and develop more healthful products. And it happens to be right next to Yale University. This Hartford Courant story describes the connection this way: "The lab has no formal affiliation with Yale, but it operates near the campus and the researchers say they hope to benefit from their proximity to the university's resources.