The management restructuring puts John Compton, who heads the company’s Americas foods division, in charge of all the company’s global groups in the newly created role of president.
PepsiCo. said Compton will also work with its regional groups for Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa to build brands, develop new products and cut costs. Compton, who is 52, started his career with PepsiCo. when he was 22 and has been there ever since.
Brian Cornell, who was president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Sam’s Club division, will take over for Compton as CEO of PepsiCo. Americas Foods. The unit includes the Purchase, New York-based company’s Frito-Lay and Quaker foods and snacks businesses.
Cornell, who is 50, previously held management positions at Pepsi, including president of its Tropicana brand and its Europe and Africa beverage businesses, before leaving the company in 2004.
PepsiCo. said the appointments are effective immediately.
John Sicher, editor of Beverage Digest, said the appointments were in line with PepsiCo’s focus on transforming into a more international company like its rival The Coca-Cola Co.
“They want to extract all the benefits they can from being as big and global a company as they are,” Sicher said.
The focus on international markets has become increasingly critical for beverage and snack food companies, given the flat growth at home in recent years.
PepsiCo. in the past few years even created three new groups — global beverages, global snacks and global nutrition. The company said the heads of each of those groups will now report to Compton.
The new management structure comes as PepsiCo, the nation’s No. 2 cola company, has lost ground in recent years to Coca-Cola and faced speculation that Nooyi would step down amid investor dissatisfaction.
In a note to investors, Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. analyst Mark Swartzberg said he considered the appointments positive for the company’s long-term fundamentals. Although he said he no inside knowledge of the situation, he said it was a “reasonable outcome” that Nooyi would soon leave her post as CEO, paving the way for Compton or another senior PepsiCo. executive.
At its annual investor meeting last month, PepsiCo. said it plans to focus on regaining market share in North America by rolling out new products and significantly boosting its ad spending. The company also said it would cut 8,700 jobs, or about 3 percent of its work force.
While PepsiCo. is clearly focused on identifying its business fundamentals and identifying ways to strengthen its advantages, Citi analyst Wendy Nicholson also noted last month that it would be “a mistake to underestimate the chaos factor” at PepsiCo.
She cited the high level of turnover during the past year, including the company’s announcement that Massimo d’Amore, the president of its global beverages group, would retire early next year.
“While we believe change is good, especially for an organization that has underperformed, we also wonder how much more shifting of responsibilities is yet to come,” she wrote.
