Should Pepsi break up?

Economie
Page 18
DÉCOUVERTES
16:05
CULTURE
19/12/11
ENJEUX
SOCIÉTÉ
18-19-631-Steph:ENJEUX
[88] B2-C1
Should Pepsi break up?
SE DIVISER POUR MIEUX REGNER ? Si la société PepsiCo est surtout connue en Europe pour ses boissons, dont le PepsiCola, cette multinationale américaine possède également de nombreuses marques de snacks. Si l’un de ses secteurs d’activité est largement bénéficiaire, l’autre se trouve dans une position plus délicate. La deuxième plus grande entreprise
agro-alimentaire au monde devrait-elle se scinder en deux ?
THE ECONOMIST
Should Pepsi break up?
Pepsi devrait-il se scinder ?
quarter trimestre / impassioned passionné,
exalté / plea plaidoyer / clout pouvoir,
influence, poids / supplier fournisseur / retailer vendeur, distributeur / customer client /
thanks to grâce à / ability faculté, capacité,
possibilité / to market commercialiser / brand
marque.
2. to fuel nourrir, alimenter, ici doper / to
increase augmenter / takeover rachat, prise
de contrôle / operating profit bénéfice d’exploitation.
3. ahead futur, à venir / to be under fire être
violemment critiqué / healthy sain, diététique / ware produit / to take, took, taken
one’s eyes off détourner les yeux de, se
détourner de, délaisser / core de base, principal / to push promouvoir / tasty savoureux
/ stuff choses, ici produits / to drag down
tirer vers le bas, faire baisser / operation unité
de production, entreprise / carper pinailleur,
critique / to split, split, split (se) diviser, (se)
scinder / peddler vendeur / to subsidise subventionner.
4. former ancien /
18 • VOCABLE Du 29 décembre 2011 au 11 janvier 2012
firmly believe that Pepsico’s value is
maximised as one company,” said Indra Nooyi, the boss of PepsiCo, during the announcement of the company’s third-quarter results on October
12th. What followed was an impassioned plea for the “Power of One”.
That is how Pepsi describes its clout
with suppliers, retailers and customers, thanks to its ability to market
and distribute several of its brands together.
2. Fuelled by growth in emerging markets, Pepsi’s results were better than expected. Net revenue increased by 9%, excluding the impact of the company’s
recent takeover of Wimm-Bill-Dann, a
Russian food firm. Pepsi’s operating
profit was up by 4% compared with the
same period last year.
I
Divisions ahead?
3. Yet perhaps Ms Nooyi protests too
much. She has been under fire from investors who say that, in her quest to transform Pepsi into a maker of healthier wares,
she has taken her eyes off its core business
of pushing tasty stuff that’s bad for you. Its
drinks business has lost market share and
is dragging down the value of its snacks operation. The carpers suggest a solution:
Pepsi should split into two smaller portions, a drinks firm and a snack peddler.
That way, Frito-Lay (Doritos, Tostitos and
Walkers) would no longer subsidise Pepsi,
Gatorade (a sports drink) and Tropicana (a
maker of fruit juice).
4. In her former role as Pepsi’s chief
strategist, Ms Nooyi set the company on
a healthier course even before becoming
its boss, by engineering the takeovers of
Tropicana and Quaker Oats, which makes
breakfast cereals.
She is now making
Pepsi’s fizzy drinks
less sugary and its
snacks as much as
25% less salty and
15% less fatty. Her
goal is to increase
Pepsi’s portfolio
of “good for you” products
(nuts, oats, fruit juice)
from about $10 billion,
or one-fifth of revenue,
to $30 billion.
food-service business and a meats business. In August, Kraft announced that it
would split its international snack brands
(Trident gum, Cadbury’s chocolate)
from its North
American grocery
business, including
Maxwell House coffee, Jell-O and Oscar
Mayer meats. And
last month the
shares of two companies formed by splitting a wildly diversified group, Fortune
Brands, began trading on the New York
Stock Exchange. Investors could choose
between Fortune Brands Home & Security
(locks, windows) and Beam (which makes
Jim Beam whiskey).
7. Not all these splits will work out. One
or two had a whiff of desperation, says
Aswath Damodaran of the Stern School
of Business. It was as if, having ruthlessly
cut costs and still not improved their performance, the mother companies had
simply run out of other ideas. Pepsi, by
contrast, seems ripe for bisection.
Would a split help? Pepsi
would certainly be following
a trend.
Not very
healthy
choices
5. Virtuous
this may be, but
it has not been
good for the bottom line. Since Ms
Nooyi took over in
October
2006
Pepsi’s shares have
declined by 7%,
while those of CocaCola, its great rival,
have risen by 50%.
This failure has perhaps been exacerbated by unhappiness
within the company’s
American drinks business, which has lost
three marketing bosses
in just over three years.
In the same period it suffered several marketing
flubs, including a botched
Tropicana makeover and
a confusing relaunch of
Gatorade.
6. Would a split help? Pepsi
would certainly be following a trend. In January Sara
Lee, a hawker of cakes and
sausages, said it would split
into an American retail and
Let it split?
8. Ms Nooyi seems determined to keep
it in one piece. But the opportunity costs
are mounting. She has herself admitted
that as a stand-alone company, Frito-Lay,
the star in her portfolio, might be the best
consumer-goods maker in America. So far
activist investors such as Nelson Peltz and
William Ackman, who have successfully
pushed for the split of several consumergoods companies, have left Pepsi alone.
But they may not do so for much longer.
It may be time to crack open Pepsi. ●
SOCIÉTÉ
Page 19
ENJEUX
16:05
CULTURE
19/12/11
DÉCOUVERTES
18-19-631-Steph:ENJEUX
course direction, orientation / to engineer
organiser, mettre au point / oat avoine / fizzy
pétillant, gazeux / sugary sucré / salty salé /
fatty gras / goal but, objectif / portfolio portefeuille, ici gamme de produits, marques /
nut noisette, noix.
5. healthy ici judicieux / virtuous vertueux /
bottom line résultat financier / to take over
prendre la direction / to decline baisser / failure échec / flub gaffe, bourde, erreur / botched raté, loupé / makeover changement de
look / confusing complexe, déroutant /
relaunch nouveau lancement.
6. split division, scission / trend tendance,
évolution / hawker vendeur / retail commerce
de détail, distribution / gum chewing-gum /
grocery produit d’épicerie / wildly follement,
ici extrêmement / to trade s’échanger / Stock
Exchange Bourse / lock verrou.
7. to work out résoudre les problèmes, réussir / whiff relent, odeur / desperation désespoir, (they) had... desperation (elles) avaient
quelque chose de désespéré / ruthlessly impitoyablement / to cut, cut, cut réduire / to
improve améliorer / performance résultats
/ to run, ran, run out of être à court de / ripe
mûr, ici prêt.
8. opportunity cost coût d’opportunité, coût
d’option (perte des biens auxquels on renonce
lorsqu’on procède à un choix) / to mount
augmenter / stand-alone autonome, indépendant / consumer goods produits de
(grande) consommation / so far jusqu’à présent / activist militant (ici partisan d’une scission) / to push for exercer des pressions en
faveur de, prôner / to leave, left, left alone ne
pas se mêler de / to crack open ouvrir, décapsuler, ici scinder.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
What’s in a name?
trademark (nom de) marque / to file an application déposer une demande / registration
enregistrement, inscription, dépôt / nut noix
/ recipe recette.
The original trademark application for PepsiCola was filed on September 23, 1902 with registration approved on June 16, 1903. It was
named after the digestive enzyme pepsin and
kola nuts used in the recipe.
Du 29 décembre 2011 au 11 janvier 2012 VOCABLE • 19