Coca cola y Pepsico: 20 billones de dolares para conseguir una distribución flexible.

Debido a los cambios en los gustos del consumidor (cada dia más exigente), al aumento exponecial del nº de referencias (bebidas no carbonatadas, aguas con diferentes aromas...)  y al hecho de tener productos que requieren velocidades de ditribución diferentes, Pepsico ha comenzado a comprar el grueso de las empresas que realizaban el embotellado y distribución de sus productos. Los modelos adoptados en los 80, tanto por PepsiCo como por coca-cola,  donde las compañias se focalizaban en el desarrollo del producto y el marketing (cuando se manejaban pocas referencias carbonatadas) externalizando el resto, no son válidas hoy en dia.

De acuerdo con Pesico, esta estrategia le permitirá:

•  llevar al mercado más rápidamente productos y formulas de packaging innovadoras
• Integrar sus sistemas de Ventas-Fabricación-Distribución haciendolos más dinámicos.
• Reaccionar más rápido a los cambios del mercado (como hace con el negocio de la alimentación)

Esto creará muchas sinergias entre el negocio de bebidas y de alimentación (Valoradas en 300 millones de $ en 2012).

Coca-cola se ve obligado a seguir la misma estrategia si no quiere estar en desventaja frete a Pepsico.

En definitiva, los cambios mencionados anteriormente están poniendo sobre la mesa acuerdos que de forma acumulada estan valirados en 20 billones de $.

El articulo orginal escrito por Steve Banker:

In an article last Thursday, The Wall Street Journal announced that the Coca-Cola Company was nearing a deal to buy the bulk of its largest bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises. This was interesting news to me because the acquisition, like PepsiCo's deals to buy its two biggest bottlers, The Pepsi Bottling Group and PepsiAmericas, was driven in large part by the need for distribution flexibility.

A little refresher course on this industry might help to explain what is going on. Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo were originally vertically integrated. The companies developed the products, manufactured and distributed them, and took care of marketing. Then, several decades ago, these companies divested the manufacturing and logistics responsibilities to bottlers while retaining control of product development and marketing. The bottlers manufactured the products - mostly carbonated beverages - and distributed a large portion of them using direct store delivery (DSD) to retail establishments rather than delivering to retail distribution centers.

As for the supply chain drivers of these mergers, the authors of the WSJ wrote:


In the press release at the time of PepsiCo's announcement, Ms. Nooyi said that "The fully integrated beverage business will enable us to bring innovative products and packages to market faster, streamline our manufacturing and distribution systems and react more quickly to changes in the marketplace, much like we do with our food business. It will also make it easier to leverage 'Power of One' opportunities that involve both our beverage and food offerings, and for PepsiCo to present one face to retail customers. Ultimately it will put us in a much better position to compete and to grow both now and in the years ahead."
The PepsiCo transaction is expected to create annual pre-tax synergies of $300 million by 2012 largely due to greater cost efficiency and also improved revenue opportunities. And this was another factor in Coca-Cola's decision to follow suit. Once PepsiCo had direct control of distribution, and had cut out the middleman, it would potentially have a price advantage over Coke.
In summary, changes in customer tastes, SKU proliferation, and having products with different distribution velocities, has led to deals that are cumulatively worth about $20 billion.

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