Company
Comparison
Tool
India Spotlight Index 2020

PepsiCo India

Product Profile Categories
Bottled Water; Breakfast Cereals; Carbonates; Juice; Savoury Snacks
PDF
Rank 3 / Score 5.2
Rank 3 (2016)
Product Profile
Rank 9 / Score 5.2
Headquarters
U.S.|India
Number of employees
143000
Retail sales (INR – millions)
111166

Company Profile

Rank 3

Score 5.2

(%) Figure in brackets is the weighting of the category. All category, commitment, performance and disclosure scores are out of 10

Commitment

Performance

Disclosure

The bar graph to the left shows company performance across the seven Index categories, which are key topic areas of assessment, and scores are shown for each category. The circles above provide an alternate view on the company’s overall results, showing the score per indicator type.

Main areas
of strength

  • Pepsico India ranks third out of 16 companies in the 2020 India Index with a score of 5.2 out of 10. Pepsico India has increased its overall score by one full point and improved its performance within six of the seven Categories (the most improved being F – Labeling, G – Engagement and D – Marketing).
  • The company’s Performance with Purpose (PwP) 2025 product reformulation commitments are well aligned with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) Eat Right Movement, which aims to reduce the amount of added sugars, salt and saturated fat in packaged foods and beverages, and to ensure products remain free of trans fat originating from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
  • Pepsico India has improved its commitments and performance on addressing undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies by developing several new products, including those that address the needs of women of childbearing age with iron deficiency. In addition to products that are naturally rich in micronutrients, the company has introduced several fortified ‘Tropicana’ juice products that are adapted to nutritional needs in India.
  • Pepsico India performs well in Category D – Marketing – with a comprehensive and responsible marketing policy, including a commitment to avoid marketing in primary schools. The company is a Food & Beverage Alliance of India pledge signatory, and thereby commits to limit the marketing of unhealthy products to children and to regular auditing of these commitments.
  • The company has improved its approach to stakeholder engagement and partnerships by publicly disclosing its engagement with national bodies and scientific experts to develop its commercial nutrition programs. PepsiCo India also actively contributes to FSSAI’s initiatives by, for example, creating awareness about healthy eating and active lifestyles – including education about anemia – for the Authority’s Eat Right School Program.

Priority areas
for improvement

  • Pepsico India ranks ninth in the 2019 Product Profile with a score of 5.2 out of 10. The company provided ATNI with nutrition information about its portfolio, which was used to estimate the percentage of 2018 sales derived from products achieving a Health Star Rating (HSR) of 3.5 or more out of 5 – i.e. that meet the ‘healthy’ threshold. When compared to the India Index 2016, this percentage increased from 8 to 18%. The company should continue improving the composition of its products and the overall nutritional quality of its product portfolio.
  • Pepsico India publicly discloses elements of its PepsiCo Nutrition Criteria (PNC), including the nutrients it limits. The company should align its definition of healthy products with external benchmarks, such as the HSR 3.5-star threshold, and consider publishing the full details of its PNC – including the tiered criteria it has defined for 20 product categories.
  • Pepsico India has set up a partnership with Varun Beverages Limited to address the distribution of healthy and fortified products in India. It could improve its approach by formalizing its strategy to enhance the accessibility of its healthy products and by defining concrete targets to reach low-income populations and aspirational districts.
  • The company could further strengthen its marketing approach by pledging only to market products to children that meet the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region (SEAR) regional standard. The Product Profile found that 15% of the assessed products currently meet this standard. Additionally, Pepsico India could explore options to include children above 12 years in its commitment, and to exclude inappropriate marketing in secondary schools (beyond its current policy on beverage sales), and in places near schools.
  • Pepsico India’s employee health and wellness program, available for all employees, could be improved by ensuring the program’s impact is independently evaluated and by extending it to workers throughout the wider value chain.
  • To further improve its labeling approach, the company is encouraged to implement an interpretive front-of-pack labeling system as soon as possible that aligns with other companies or industry associations, and is developed in partnership with the Government and other relevant stakeholders.

Category Analysis

Governance

Governance

Products

Accessibility

Marketing

Workforce

Labeling

Engagement

Nutrition

A1
Nutrition strategy
A2
Nutrition management
A3
Reporting quality
B1
Product Profile
B2
Product formulation
B3
Defining healthy products
C1
Product pricing
C2
Product distribution
D1
Marketing policy
D2
Marketing to children
D3
Auditing and compliance
E1
Employee health
E2
Breastfeeding support
E3
Consumer health
F1
Product labeling
F2
Claims
G1
Influencing policymakers
G2
Stakeholder engagement

All category, criteria, commitment, performance and disclosure scores are out of 10

Commitment

Performance

Disclosure

The circle on the left represents the company result for this Index category, showing the rank out of 16 and the score below it. The colored segments represent the respective criteria contributions to the overall category score. The above circles indicate how the company performs on the three types of indicators within this category.
The circle on the left represents the company result for this Index category, showing the rank out of 16 and the score below it. The colored segments represent the respective criteria contributions to the overall category score. The above circles indicate how the company performs on the three types of indicators within this category.
The circle on the left represents the company result for this Index category, showing the rank out of 16 and the score below it. The colored segments represent the respective criteria contributions to the overall category score. The above circles indicate how the company performs on the three types of indicators within this category.
The circle on the left represents the company result for this Index category, showing the rank out of 16 and the score below it. The colored segments represent the respective criteria contributions to the overall category score. The above circles indicate how the company performs on the three types of indicators within this category.
The circle on the left represents the company result for this Index category, showing the rank out of 16 and the score below it. The colored segments represent the respective criteria contributions to the overall category score. The above circles indicate how the company performs on the three types of indicators within this category.
For this category performance indicators were not included. The circle on the left represents the company result for this Index category, showing the rank out of 16 and the score below it. The colored segments represent the respective criteria contributions to the overall category score. The above circles indicate how the company performs on the three types of indicators within this category.
The circle on the left represents the company result for this Index category, showing the rank out of 16 and the score below it. The colored segments represent the respective criteria contributions to the overall category score. The above circles indicate how the company performs on the three types of indicators within this category.
Companies are grouped into three different industry segments in this Index based on the type of products they predominantly sell (i.e. contributing 80% or more to their total food and beverage sales) – dairy, edible oil or mixed portfolio. The graph on the right shows how the company’s result within this Index category compares to that of its peers within the same industry segment.
Companies are grouped into three different industry segments in this Index based on the type of products they predominantly sell (i.e. contributing 80% or more to their total food and beverage sales) – dairy, edible oil or mixed portfolio. The graph on the right shows how the company’s result within this Index category compares to that of its peers within the same industry segment.
Companies are grouped into three different industry segments in this Index based on the type of products they predominantly sell (i.e. contributing 80% or more to their total food and beverage sales) – dairy, edible oil or mixed portfolio. The graph on the right shows how the company’s result within this Index category compares to that of its peers within the same industry segment.
Companies are grouped into three different industry segments in this Index based on the type of products they predominantly sell (i.e. contributing 80% or more to their total food and beverage sales) – dairy, edible oil or mixed portfolio. The graph on the right shows how the company’s result within this Index category compares to that of its peers within the same industry segment.
Companies are grouped into three different industry segments in this Index based on the type of products they predominantly sell (i.e. contributing 80% or more to their total food and beverage sales) – dairy, edible oil or mixed portfolio. The graph on the right shows how the company’s result within this Index category compares to that of its peers within the same industry segment.
Companies are grouped into three different industry segments in this Index based on the type of products they predominantly sell (i.e. contributing 80% or more to their total food and beverage sales) – dairy, edible oil or mixed portfolio. The graph on the right shows how the company’s result within this Index category compares to that of its peers within the same industry segment.
Companies are grouped into three different industry segments in this Index based on the type of products they predominantly sell (i.e. contributing 80% or more to their total food and beverage sales) – dairy, edible oil or mixed portfolio. The graph on the right shows how the company’s result within this Index category compares to that of its peers within the same industry segment.

Peer Comparison

Peer Comparison

Peer Comparison

Peer Comparison

Peer Comparison

Peer Comparison

Peer Comparison

Peer Comparison

Peer Comparison

Peer Comparison

Peer Comparison

Peer Comparison

Peer Comparison

Peer Comparison

Product Profile

9
Rank 9 / Score 5.2

Portfolio-level Results

Average HSR
score products
(sales-weighted)		 Healthy products
(HSR)		 Products suitable to
market to children
(WHO SEAR)		 Range of total
India F&B sales
included
% products
healthy		 % sales
healthy		 No. products
assessed		 % products
suitable		 % sales
suitable		 No. products
assessed
2.1 21% 18% 81 15% 32% 81 90-100%
  • A total of 81 products from across five categories, representing 90-100% of PepsiCo India’s estimated 2018 retail sales, were included in the Product Profile. Seventeen products (21%) were found to meet the HSR healthy threshold and the company is estimated to have derived 18% of its 2018 sales from healthy products.
  • The company achieves an unweighted mean HSR of 2.2 out of 5. After sales-weighting the company’s mean HSR slightly decreases to 2.1 out of 5, resulting in a mean healthiness score of 4.1 out of 10.
  • A total of 81 products were assessed to determine their suitability to be marketed to children according to the WHO SEAR nutrient profile model. Twelve products identified in the Bottled Water, Breakfast Cereals and Carbonates categories, and estimated to represent 32% of 2018 sales, were found to meet the criteria.

Product Category Results

Category Bottled Water Breakfast Cereals Carbonates Juice Savoury Snacks
Mean HSR 5.0 4 1.8 2.5 1.7
% products
healthy		 100 80 12 37 3
% products
suitable to
market to children		 100 20 47 0 0
  • After Bottled Water (with a mean HSR of 5 out of 5), the second best performing category for PepsiCo India is Breakfast Cereals, which achieves a mean HSR of 4.0 out of 5. Four out of five (80%) of the company’s Breakfast Cereal products were found to meet the HSR healthy threshold, yet only one was found suitable to be marketed to children according to the WHO SEAR criteria. In the Savoury Snacks category, the company achieved the lowest mean HSR of 1.7.

Relative nutritional quality of PepsiCo India's products by category compared to competitors

Mean HSR Bottled Water Breakfast Cereals Carbonates Juice Savoury Snacks
PepsiCo India 5.0 4 1.8 2.5 1.7
Britannia Industries 2.2
Campbell 3.3 2.5
Coca-Cola 1.5 2.7
Coca-Cola India 5.0 1.7 1.3
Conagra 3.7 2.5
General Mills 3.1
Grupo Bimbo 2.1
ITC 1.8
Kellogg 3.2 1.7
Keurig Dr Pepper 1.3 2.1
Kraft Heinz 3.6 3.5
Lactalis 4.3
Marico 3.7
Mars 1
Mondelēz 2.2
Nestlé 3.1 1.8
Parle Products 2.3
PepsiCo 3.9 1.6 2.6
Suntory 1.6 3.5
Tingyi 3.6
Unilever 3.8
  • Among three other companies that sell products in India in the Savory Snacks category (as part of their top-selling categories), PepsiCo India ranks last with a mean HSR of 1.7 out of 5. The company ranks best of two companies for the Carbonates, Juice and Breakfast Cereals categories and ranks joint first for the Bottled Water category.
  • PepsiCo India competes with other companies in five categories and achieves a relative category score of 6.2 out of 10 based on its ranking within these categories.

Conclusion

  • PepsiCo India’s mean healthiness score of 4.1 and relative category score of 6.2 result in an overall Product Profile score of 5.2 out of 10, ranking the company ninth in the assessment.
  • PepsiCo India’s Product Profile score is driven more so by the company’s relative performance against its peers (the relative category score) than by its mean healthiness score. PepsiCo India should continue improving the healthiness of its products and is encouraged to shift its sales towards healthier products and product categories.

General disclaimer

As a multi-stakeholder and collaborative project, the findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in the report may not necessarily reflect the views of all companies, members of the stakeholder groups or the organizations they represent or of the funders of the project. This report is intended to be for informational purposes only and is not intended as promotional material in any respect. This report is not intended to provide accounting, legal or tax advice or investment recommendations. Whilst based on information believed to be reliable, no guarantee can be given that it is accurate or complete.

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