PepsiCo completes bottlers acquisitions

PURCHASE, N.Y. Food and beverage giant PepsiCo has completed its $7.8 billion strategic acquisitions of its two largest bottlers, Pepsi Bottling Group and PepsiAmericas.

"Today marks Day One of the new PepsiCo," said chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi. "Bringing together these three great companies enables us to create the industry's fastest, most flexible and most efficient food and beverage system. It will leverage the capabilities of our entire enterprise — what we call The Power of One — to achieve many years of healthy, profitable growth.

"This investment opens up a broad range of new growth opportunities around the world, particularly in North America, which accounts for the majority of our revenues and offers the prospect of significant growth. We have approximately 115,000 employees in the U.S. alone, and we are committed to continuing to invest in this critically important market," added Nooyi.

PepsiCo said it expects to achieve 11% to 13% EPS growth in 2010. The company also said it expects to achieve low-double-digit core constant currency EPS growth in 2011 and 2012.

"We have devoted the last 10 months to meticulously planning the integration of our companies, and we are fully prepared to launch our new enterprise starting today," Nooyi said. "Most important, we have an exceptionally strong and experienced leadership team in place and ready to go."