Pepsico Inc

Moscow residents who ride the Russian city's subway were greeted Thursday by a flash of red, white and blue: a pushcart dispensing Taco Bell burritos, hot dogs, sausage and Pepsi-Cola. Pepsico Inc. and its Taco Bell subsidiary in Irvine are following the lead of McDonald's Inc., which introduced its popular line of fast food to Russians three years ago. "Early reports indicate that the pushcart was incredibly popular," said Zane Leshner, Taco Bell's senior vice president of operations.

Kentucky Fried Chicken is trying to put the sizzle back into its fast-food business by adding charcoal-grilled chicken to a menu now led by its much copied fried chicken. The restaurant chain is trying to lift profits out of a recent downward trend by adding non-fried chicken products and expanding lunchtime business in the United States, its president, John Cranor III, said. A subsidiary of Pepsico Inc., Louisville-based Kentucky Fried Chicken Corp.

Hindu nationalists launched a campaign Wednesday to drive foreign goods out of India, less than a week after a wealthy western state canceled the country's biggest foreign investment project, a power plant that was being built by Houston-based Enron Corp. About 100 protesters gathered in the rain in New Delhi, smashing bottles of Pepsi and shouting slogans denouncing the policies of Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, who opened up the Indian market in 1991. "Foreigners go home!"

Tricon Global Restaurants Inc., the parent company of Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut, which will be spun off from PepsiCo Inc. later this year, said Thursday that its headquarters will be in Louisville, Ky. The new holding company, which will own more than 30,000 restaurants, said the decision should not be felt at Taco Bell's headquarters in Irvine. "We want to emphasize that this won't have any impact on Taco Bell's headquarters," said David Novak, Tricon's vice chairman and president.

PepsiCo Inc. on Tuesday took another step toward spinning off its $11-billion restaurant business by appointing new presidents at the Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut chains. The appointments came one day after the soft drink and snack food giant named the chairman and vice chairman of the restaurant company that will be spun off to shareholders later this year.

Buy a soft drink, help a school. Budget's tight, call a cola company. That is the thinking behind the unusual partnership between the nation's leading beverage companies and many parents and principals. In Moodus, Conn., the entire town is collecting Pepsi caps to save the dilapidated Nathan Hale-Ray High School. In the first three weeks, children saved 20,000 caps. At a nickel apiece, the caps won't cover $9 million in expenses, but the fund-raising drive has raised hopes.

PepsiCo Inc. on Tuesday took another step toward spinning off its $11-billion restaurant business by appointing new presidents at the Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut chains. The appointments came one day after the soft drink and snack food giant named the chairman and vice chairman of the restaurant company that will be spun off to shareholders later this year.

PepsiCo Inc. got the green light Wednesday to buy Quaker Oats Co. and its top-selling Gatorade brand for about $14 billion after the Federal Trade Commission deadlocked over whether the new company would harm competition in the sports drink market. FTC commissioners voted 2 to 2 on going to court to block Pepsi's purchase, one vote short of the majority needed to file suit. A unanimous decision was then taken to close the investigation of the deal, an agency statement said.

Brominated vegetable oil, a synthetic chemical that has been patented in Europe as a flame retardant, will no longer double as an ingredient in Gatorade sports drinks. Molly Carter, a spokeswoman for Gatorade owner PepsiCo Inc., said the company has been considering the move for more than a year, working on a way to take out the ingredient without affecting the flavor of the drink. A recent petition on Change.org to drop the chemical - which has more than 200,000 supporters - did not inspire the decision, Carter said, though she acknowledged that consumer feedback was the main impetus.

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.