Pepsi has ousted Coca-Cola at IHOP and at Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar restaurants.
DineEquity, the parent of the two chains, announced Monday it has signed a 10-year agreement with Pepsi to be the company's exclusive provider of non-alcoholic beverages. Applebee's, which has 1,500 stores in the United States, was mostly served by Pepsi, but had a few holdouts. IHOP, which has 1,500 stores in the nation, split its beverages between the rivals before the announcement.
The switch to all Pepsi products will be completed by July.
The DineEquity announcement is the latest in an exclusivity back-and-forth between Coke and Pepsi.
In early April, Dunkin' Brands Group chose Coke over Pepsi as the exclusive beverage of its brands, Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins.
Papa John's Pizza announced in November that it was ending its exclusive 25-year relationship with Coca-Cola and would start serving Pepsi beverages in U.S. stores this past January.
In mid-April, Family Dollar announced it was making room for Pepsi on its shelves. The company had had an exclusive contract with Coke, which the chain will continue to sell.
"The agreement with PepsiCo illustrates our ongoing efforts to fully leverage DineEquity's scale to the ultimate benefit of our brands, franchisees and guests," Julia Stewart, chairman and chief executive officer of DineEquity said in a statement. "By consolidating our business with PepsiCo, we achieved more advantageous terms for our franchisees than ever before, while securing the widest variety of beverage options for our guests. We have enjoyed the strong partnership with PepsiCo at Applebee's and now look forward to a similarly successful relationship encompassing IHOP."
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