Hi;
Looks like a step in the right direction for PEP.
---------------------
Pepsico Inc sees turnaround in Latin America
MEXICO CITY, Nov 5 (Reuter) - PepsiCo Inc's chairman-elect Roger Enrico promised on Tuesday the beverage and food giant will rebound from hard times in Latin America, where the company has been losing market share and recently saw one of its biggest bottlers defect to rival Coca-Cola Co .
"There have been important problems in Latin America over the past year," Enrico told a news conference after meeting with Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo.
"There is no doubt errors were committed ... Nonetheless, I want to say that they are isolated cases. There is nothing that a company of our size and strength can't resolve," he said.
Enrico said PepsiCo will soon have a new partner in Venezuela after its former partner, Grupo Cisneros, dumped Pepsi and allied itself with Coca-Cola. The move was a blow for Pepsi, since Venezuela was one of the few markets in the world where it had an edge over its Atlanta-based rival.
"Specifically, in Venezuela I think we are going to recuperate soon in that market," Enrico said. "We will have a very strong partner and we feel optimistic about our situation."
Enrico would not say who that partner might be, but Pepsi has said it was in talks with Polar, a leading Venezuelan brewer, over a partnership to bottle Pepsi products.
Enrico, elected chairman last week, said PepsiCo would also seek to strengthen its Mexican bottler Grupo Embotellador de Mexico (Gemex) GGE.MX , especially its Monterrey-based operations.
"In Monterrey we have been working hard, there are a lot of hands involved, investors, banks, creditors," he said. "It's a delicate situation, but we're working to grow this company."
Enrico said negotiations were advancing with Grupo Protexa, parent company of the firm Agral Regiomontano, which operates the PepsiCo franchise in the northern industrial city of Monterrey.
For six months Gemex has been seeking financing to buy Agral Riomontana, which is heavily leveraged.
"I don't know when the resolution will be given, but Gemex will be the best operator in the (Monterrey) area, one of the most important for PepsiCo in Mexico. We just need to put the pieces together," Enrico told Reuters after the news conference.
Enrico said the five-year total of investments in PepsiCo's Mexico soft drinks division would reach $150 million in 1997.
-------------------
Later.
Mark |
