Thread regarding PepsiCo Inc. (Pepsi) layoffs

How many HQ layoffs are we thinking? Dozens? Hundreds?

Mondelez is hemorrhaging and Mars is kicked out of canteen. RIP CPG

Look no further than General Mills, they're slowly dying, no one is buying their c-r-a-p cereals anymore because it's a no-value rip-off and it's just bad for your health. The bubble all these CPG companies thrived in for the past 60 years is gone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vQ5fCvsedw&t=868s

@f9 LOL Debbie downer. It’s not that deep.

I was with you until the soul piece. Most of it being spot on, treat this place like a game and have fun until your number is called.

In 1992 a typical Territory Sales Manager by the age of 37 had a paid off home and a home on the coast.

Listen closely, because no one above you will ever say this out loud.

We are entering an era where every raise, every customer investment, every dollar spent activating a local market is a line item marked for deletion. None of it pays back inside a quarter, and the quarter is now the only horizon that exists.
Until the CEO is gone and the territories are refranchised, the machine will keep doing exactly what it was built to do: hollow out its workforce. Not with layoffs. Layoffs make headlines. With slow starvation. Wages that stand still while everything around them rises. Promotions dressed up as opportunity that hand you more weight on a shrinking dollar. A bonus structure that was competitive twenty-five years ago and has been quietly embalmed ever since.

And the seats won't stay empty. They'll be refilled, deliberately, with a different kind of leader. The operator, the one who knew the route, the account, and the P&L, and who held people to a standard, is being phased out. In his place comes the cheerleader, whose real job is to keep the next generation smiling through their indentured servitude. Morale replaces accountability. Enthusiasm replaces pay. Feeling good about the work becomes the payment for the work.

It ends only one way. A pure brand company sits at the top, owning the logos and the margin. Private operators own everything else: the trucks, the warehouses, the people, and all of the risk.

So read the terms before you sign. This job will take your hours first, then your ambition, then your belief that effort gets rewarded. In return you get a title, a pep talk, and a check that buys a little less every year. The price of admission was never your time. It's your soul, and they've stopped pretending otherwise.

The cost cuts regarding spending currently in place are not a new play. I have seen this before, same restrictions.
They are very unapologetic though about prescription dr-g cuts, taking away company cars, and a poor compensation merit policy.

@c3
That's not hard to see. Same thing vanguard did with other orgs including Unilever, CVS, Walgreens and Kraft.

The quickest way to see what's going on is to look at toysrus, Red Lobster and others.

Step 1: go vertical
Step 2: buy the competition, I.e. everything within the vertical
Step 3: make it impossible for the org to operate I.e. perpetual layoffs of competent people, push people out, unnecessary "transformation" projects and reorgs
Step 4: extract all and any value from the org
Step 5: sell it for pieces so the brand, the real estate, the everything

In case of PepsiCo: become the ultimate and only distributor in the vertical and push for "dark warehouse" and manufacturing like China.

Except, China actually has a social contract. Americans voted for their demise since the 80s. You'll die as poor as dirt, and the pestilence that caused it is now spreading to the rest of the world.

3PL and selling of territory makes too much sense. Give or take 5 years and both snacks and beverages will be owned by the franchise system with 10Y perpetual agreements.

@be an old friend predicted this 8 years ago at his retirement. This will just be a branding company that is all, they will sell off everything including the roof

How right he was.

Shutdown the numerous GCCs that they opened all over the world. That would save cost, duplicity and bring sanity. But, common sense is not so common at this company anymore. The leadership would not have any business class paid international trios to take

@af nobody is talking about cutting front line. HQ restructuring and major cuts are expected. I wish it was done already, the wait is ki-ling me!

@a9 how can they cut frontline when we don’t even have enough employees to fill the shelves.

I don’t have any new information, but I agree with you 100%. It’s been eerily quiet in Plano lately.

If the expected changed are coming, many are doing a great job of keeping it sealed. Rumors had said November and that lines up with Pepsi’s proposal to Elliot that a go to market/supply chain strategy update would be announced late 2026. We’ve already seen a sneak peek eg. outsourcing, third party logistics, and Pep/frito combining. With the current stock performance, Elliot has been eerily quiet, which is not their MO. Although, an Elliot approved BOD member will be starting in December. The current cost environment is as restrictive as I’ve ever seen it, everything is being cut to save Q4 in the face of announced price increases. We saw that fail miserably earlier this year, though these are to be less aggressive and more in line with inflation. Consumers already told us they wouldn’t pay more, which means volume growth is off the table. The increase covers COGs and OPEX. When you can’t grow top line, there is one option left, that is a reduction in operating costs, the largest driver of OPEX is labor/benefits. If you review the Elliot playbook, you’ll know they won’t standby quietly unless something big is in the works. Q3 results announced Oct 8, stock has been downgraded, and Q4 pressures significant. All this to say: I fully expect the largest restructuring we’ve ever seen announced, with major job impacts by end of year. The rumors are true, the silence is deafening.