The battle between the two businesses PepsiCo and the Coca Cola Company are heating up again in the thriving Market for Bottled Tea.
PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) is competing with its Pure Leaf Tea Product against The Coca-Cola Co (NYSE:KO)’s Honest Tea and Golden Peak Brands. Coke’s Honest Tea is directly competing with Pure Leaf where PepsiCo is in the dominant position.
According to Linda Bethea, Senior Director (Marketing) at PepsiCo, Customers is looking for a real taste of the freshly brewed tea. But the ready to drink brands of its competitors are using tea powders or concentrates that do not offer a real taste of freshly brewed tea. According to PepsiCo, it is using freshly brewed tea leaves to offer a real taste of the freshly brewed tea.
However, Coca Cola is arguing that its tea products like Honest Tea are organic and has got government accord.
According to PepsiCo, it is competing only with Gold Peak of Coca Cola because Gold Peak is not brewed version.
Coca Cola and PepsiCo are manufacturing bottled teas for health conscious customers worldwide using different process techniques.
I have got an invitation from PepsiCo to visit Indianapolis-based brewing plant to have an understanding of manufacturing process of its PureLeaf Tea. Around 400 pounds, tea leaves are put into an industrial kettle by the workers to produce approximately 45,000 bottles (each 18j.5 ounces) of tea.
PepsiCo collects tea leaves from across the world and blends using special process to retain the unique taste.
Upswing Tea Market
Prospects for tea are on the rise as health-conscious consumers prefer to drink organic tea than carbonated drinks that do not have any nutritional values. It is where PepsiCo is reaping profits with its promising products like PureLeaf Tea that offers real brewed tea taste.
The sales of ready to consume tea have increased considerably to $50 billion worldwide and $5.3 billion in the U.S. in 2014.
According to Beverage Digest, PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) enjoys a market share of 40% than its competitor Coca Cola that holds a market share of just 5.5%.
The success of PepsiCo is attributed to its alliance with Unilever that holds Lipton.
