Thread regarding PepsiCo Inc. (Pepsi) layoffs

@b6 enough transformation

Simplify, refranchise bottling first step. Then start selling off lower performing brands in foods.

Whoever left can focus on core business

The 40% margin looks great, but this math assumes Pepsi can hand the bottler the clubs, the cart, the green fees, and every bad lie while keeping the entire prize purse. Refranchising could improve margins and reduce capital needs, but the bottler still gets paid and Pepsi gives up some control. You can improve the scorecard by moving the hazards, but that doesn’t mean you shot a better round.

@b6 same experiences here. Rinse and repeat. It is time wasted that could be spent doing value-added work.
I wonder if these employees truly understand English or if they don’t understand the process..

I just want to be able to manage my accounts effectively. I manage some very large scale accounts and have to ask multiple, multiple times for very basic administrative things to be accomplished. Then I spend more time escalating the issues and connecting with people who ultimately don’t correct processes.
Furthermore, this company has a huge morale problem across the board. Everyone is tired of this constant “transformation” and not being paid fairly.

THE CASE FOR REFRANCHISING: What North America looks like on a concentrate model (using our own Q3 numbers)

Everyone's arguing about refranchising on vibes. Let's use the actual Q3 2026 earnings release.

Q3 2026, CORE OPERATING PROFIT (excl. corporate unallocated):

North America

• Foods NA (Frito-Lay/Quaker): $6.50B rev → $1.38B profit (21% margin)
• Beverages NA (PBNA): $7.71B rev → $1.01B profit (13% margin)
• NA total: $14.21B rev → $2.39B profit (17%)

International

• Intl Beverages Franchise: $1.40B rev → $0.56B profit (40% margin)
• EMEA: $5.41B → $0.94B (17%)
• LatAm Foods: $3.02B → $0.63B (21%)
• APAC Foods: $1.23B → $0.18B (15%)
• Intl total: $11.06B rev → $2.31B profit (21%)

Look at that International Beverages Franchise line. That's our OWN concentrate model. No trucks, no warehouses, no route sales. 40% margin.

Now look at PBNA: $7.7B of revenue to make $1.0B. A 13% margin, the worst in the company, on the most capital- and labor-heavy business we run.

THE WALK: run PBNA like IB Franchise

• Keep PBNA's ~$1.0B quarterly profit
• At a 40% concentrate margin, that takes ~$2.5B of revenue, not $7.7B
• North America becomes ~$9.0B revenue → still ~$2.4B profit
• NA margin goes from 17% to ~27%
• Company margin goes from ~17% to ~21%

Same profit. About $5B less revenue a quarter, and the plants, fleet, warehouses, and most of the headcount become someone else's balance sheet. Plus a one-time check for selling the bottling assets.

Coke made this exact move and now runs as an asset-light brand and concentrate company. We bought PBG and PAS in 2010 to "own execution." Sixteen years later, PBNA is the segment dragging the whole company, and Ramon just said on the call that he's "open to revisiting every option," including accelerating refranchising.

THE HONEST CAVEATS:

• A 40% intl margin may not translate 1:1 to the US.
• The people side is real. Route, warehouse, and merchandising jobs move to bottlers, and pay, pension, and union terms are where it gets decided.

But on pure financials, the question isn't "why refranchise?" It's "why are we still running a 13% margin bottling business when we already own a 40% margin concentrate one?"

Source: PepsiCo Q3 2026 earnings release (8-K Exhibit 99.1), segment core operating profit tables. Quarterly figures.

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT: PepsiCo 2028, if refranchising goes all the way

What does the leanest possible PepsiCo look like?

CEO
├─ CFO (finance, IR, treasury, tax, and the bottler royalty checks)
├─ General Counsel (franchise contracts, compliance)
├─ Chief People Officer (a team you could fit in one conference room)
├─ President, Beverage Brands
│ ├─ Brand marketing and innovation
│ ├─ Concentrate supply
│ ├─ Bottler performance management
│ └─ A handful of national accounts (Walmart, Kroger, foodservice)
├─ President, Snack Brands
│ ├─ Frito-Lay / Quaker brands and R&D
│ ├─ Plants (owned, for now)
│ └─ Store delivery → franchised out to the bottlers too
└─ President, International (already mostly franchised)

WHAT'S GONE OR MOVED:

• US bottling plants, warehouses, trucks → bottlers
• Route sales, merchandisers, field sales → bottlers
• Frito-Lay DSD → bottlers (one truck, one system, not ours)
• Field HR, fleet, regional ops → bottlers
• "Transformation," integration, One North America teams → mission accomplished, or mission abandoned
• Most US supply chain and planning → gone

WHAT'S LEFT: brands, recipes, marketing, contracts, and a royalty stream. PepsiCo becomes a brand-licensing company that happens to own some chip plants.

Not saying this is the plan. Saying the door is open, and it's worth thinking about who walks through it.

Refranchising isn't a rumor anymore. It's on the table. So what does it actually mean?

On the Q3 call, Ramon said we're "open to revisiting every option," including accelerating refranchising "in some parts of the country where we have good partners." That's the first time it's been said this plainly. It's not a full exit, though. The plan he described is a hybrid: One North America where integration works, bottler partners where it doesn't.

Worth remembering: we bought PBG and PAS in 2010 to own execution. Coke went the opposite way and handed its US bottling back to franchisees. Sixteen years later, we're debating the reverse.

Questions I'd like real answers to:

1. If a region refranchises, do route, warehouse, and merchandising roles move to the bottler, and on what pay and benefits?
   1. How do Frito-Lay delivery and integration work in regions where beverages leave?
2. Which corporate and shared-services functions survive if beverages become mostly brand and concentrate?
   4.Is this about better execution, or about getting assets off the balance sheet for Elliott?

Refranchising allows them to eliminate nearly every function: delivery, corporate and field HR, sales, and warehouse would all go. The only thing left would be Brand Co, at roughly 35% of current capacity.

This has been the talk in Purchase for months now. From Ram down, confidence in our bottling system is much higher than in PBUS. FLUS might be an option as well.

The sharks are out.

There can’t be more than 100 PepsiCo people without pay for this propaganda.you just outed yourself, RT.