PepsiCo brings back aspartame as diet cola sales fizzle

NEW YORK - PepsiCo said Monday it is putting aspartame back into some diet beverages in the United States, just a year after pulling the artificial sweetener from its products over consumer concerns about safety.

"Consumers want choice in diet colas, so we're refreshing our US lineup to provide three options that meet differing needs and taste preferences," a PepsiCo spokeswoman, Gina Anderson, said in an email to AFP.

The move comes as PepsiCo struggles with fizzling diet-cola sales.

Diet Pepsi's sales volume fell 5.8 percent in 2015 and dropped roughly 11 percent at retail during the first quarter of 2016, according to data from Beverage Digest cited by Bloomberg News.

The US beverages and snacks giant said in April 2015 it would replace aspartame-sweetened Diet Pepsi with versions sweetened with a blend of sucralose, commonly known as Splenda, and acesulfame potassium in August.

At the time, PepsiCo said that consumers wanted aspartame-free drinks. The trend came amid studies that linked aspartame to cancer.

But now American consumers appeared willing to mix up their artificial sweeteners, according to the company.

PepsiCo said it will use aspartame in its reintroduction later this year of Diet Pepsi Classic Sweetener Blend and PepsiMAX as PepsiZeroSugar.

Diet Pepsi, its main diet cola brand in the US, will remain sweetened with sucralose and Ace-K, it said.

Aspartame and sucralose are approved for human consumption by the US Food and Drug Administration.

In late 2014, Coca-Cola launched Coca-Cola Life, its first reduced-calorie soft drink sweetened with cane sugar and stevia leaf extract, a natural herbal sweetener.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Twitter brings new blood to board of directors

SAN FRANCISCO, United States - Twitter on Friday added a PepsiCo Inc. executive and a British entrepreneur to its board as chief Jack Dorsey continued an effort to shake-up the stagnating one-to-many messaging service.

In a tweet from his @jack account, Dorsey welcomed to the board PepsiCo chief financial officer Hugh Johnston and Martha Lane Fox, founder of travel website Lastminute.com and member of the House of Lords.

While Lane appeared to be a seasoned Twitter user with 193,000 followers, Johnston fired off his first tweet on Friday.

In his first tweet, Johnston said he was looking forward to being on the Twitter board.

A second tweet from @hughjohnston, sent just a few hours later, was a photo from a season-opening home game of the Mets baseball team in New York.

Fox thanked Twitter chief Dorsey and board executive chairman Omid Kordestani in a Twitter message from account @Marthalanefox, adding "I can't wait. Best. Job. Ever. Watch out silicon valley."

Dorsey and Kordestani followed up with tweets promising that Twitter was intent on making the board more diverse and that more news was on the horizon.

Twitter marked its 10th birthday last month, having become a powerful communication tool but still struggling to win users and reach profitability.

Since making a star-quality entrance a decade ago, Twitter has become a must-have tool for journalists, activists and celebrities but has struggled to show it can expand beyond its devoted "twitterati" to become a mainstream hit.

Twitter's woes include a slump in its stock price to all-time lows this year -- down nearly half from its 2013 stock market debut -- and ongoing losses, even as its revenue grows.

Twitter's base of monthly active users remained stuck at 320 million at the end of 2015. While that is a big accomplishment, Twitter has failed to keep pace with fast-growing rivals and to expand beyond its base.

The troubles forced Twitter to bring back co-founder Jack Dorsey as chief executive, but that has not stemmed rumors about a possible buyout or merger.

Twitter bears the weight of being measured against Internet titans such as Facebook, which is only a few years older but has eclipsed the billion-user mark.

Dorsey said Twitter priorities for this year include making it more intuitive to use; live-streaming video, and making it safer for people to freely express themselves on the platform.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Pepsi to manufacture Cheetos, Lay's in PH

MANILA  - Listed beverage and snacks maker Pepsi Cola Products Philippines Inc. (PCPPI) eyes hitting about $1 billion in retail sales revenues this year, as it makes its first foray into snacks manufacturing in the country.

PCPPI will manufacture the popular Cheetos and Lay's snacks in the Philippines, only its second in Asia after Bangladesh at its just inaugurated P500-million Cabuyao, Laguna facility.

This reflects PepsiCo's ongoing drive to ensure the integration of its food and beverage portfolio across multiple platforms, including manufacturing and go-to-market execution.

Sanjeev Chadha, Pepsi's chief executive officer for Asia, Middle East and North Africa, said the seamless production of beverages and food will help PepsiCo grow in the increasingly important snacks market by three times in 10 years.

"We are delighted with this opportunity to produce internationally-renowned snacks products for the Philippine market, as we move towards our vision of becoming a premier food and beverage company in the Philippines," said Furqan Ahmed Syed, president of PCPPI.

The local snacks market is increasingly competitive, with Universal Robina Corp., makers of Jack n Jill, and Liwayway Marketing Corp., makers of Clover and Oishi brands.

In May last year, PCPPI announced it would make and distribute a range of PepsiCo's popular snack products and flavors to the Philippines' 100 million consumers.

"We're pleased to share the exciting variants of Cheetos at affordable price points and within reach of the snack-loving Filipino consumers," Jika Dalupan, PCPPI vice president for corporate affairs and communications added.

For January-September 2015, Pepsi said profit rose driven by strong demand for its beverages. These include the flagship Pepsi-Cola as well as 7Up, Gatorade and Tropicana.

Net income during the nine-month period hit P706.35 million, up 14 percent while revenues during the period also rose 7.8 percent to P23.68 billion.

Income for the third quarter alone stood at P146 million, up 5.1 percent.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com