The cola wars are getting more interesting.
Six months after Coca-Cola won the rights to sell beverages at Starwood Hotels & Resorts, wrenching back the account from its main rival, PepsiCo has a couple of small wins of its own to brag about. One of them came right in Coca-Cola's backyard.
Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo will be the exclusive beverage provider in all 44 locations of Stevi B’s, a pizza buffet chain that had been a Coca-Cola customer since 1996.
In the second quarter, PepsiCo's global beverage sales rose 5 percent as the company raked in revenue of $16.8 billion and profit of $1.9 billion -- increases of 14 percent and 18 percent, respectively. But in North America, beverage sales slipped 1 percent despite growth from Sierra Mist, Pepsi Max, Gatorade and Trop50.
PepsiCo's performance in the North American beverage market was "below our expectations" in the most recent quarter, chief executive Indra Nooyi said on a conference call Thursday.
With or without Stevi B's, PepsiCo faces a steep climb in Atlanta.
In Friday's newspaper, the AJC takes a deep look at the state of the food service war between the world's largest beverage makers. It's a story you'll get only by picking up a copy of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution or logging on to the paper's iPad app. Subscribe today.
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