PepsiCo ends Pepsi, 7UP production in Russia months after promising halt over Ukraine
PepsiCo
Inc has stopped making Pepsi, 7UP and Mountain Dew in Russia nearly six
months after the U.S. company said it would suspend sales and production after
Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine.
Pepsi's announcement came after Reuters visited dozens of
supermarkets, retailers and gyms in Moscow and beyond and found cans and
bottles of Pepsi printed with July and August production dates from factories
within Russia.
The
most recent date on a Pepsi product was Aug. 17.
In a statement to Reuters, the U.S. company said it had stopped
making concentrates for PepsiCola, Mirinda, 7Up and Mountain Dew in Russia.
"All concentrates have subsequently been exhausted in Russia
and production has ended," a PepsiCo spokesperson said on Sept. 8, the
first public comments on the matter since the company announced in early March it was suspending
production, sales, promotional activities and advertising in Russia.
The
spokesperson said this was "in line with the announcement we made in March
2022" but declined to comment when asked for an update on sales and
whether they had been halted.
The continued production means sodas are still widely available in
Moscow and also in Vladivostok in the far east and Krasnoyarsk in Siberia,
according to a review by Reuters.
A
gym owner in Moscow said it had placed an order with Pepsi as recently as mid-August.
The
West has not sanctioned food and drink as part of sweeping measures aimed at
punishing Russia over its actions in Ukraine.
But the continued availability highlights the complexity of
withdrawing from one of the world's largest countries. In 2021, Russia was New
York-based Pepsi's third-biggest market, after the United States and Mexico.
Earlier in the summer, shops in the capital were still selling off
stockpiles of foreign beers, months after the brewers said they would halt
production.
The company said in June its bottler, Coca-Cola HBC AG, a separate
company, and existing customers in Russia were depleting stock, after which
production and sales of Coke and other brands would stop in Russia.
PepsiCo in March said it would continue to sell daily essentials,
such as milk and other dairy offerings, baby formula and baby food, in Russia.
The company has operated in Russia for more than 60 years and its colas were
one of the few Western products allowed in the Soviet Union prior to its
collapse.
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