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PepsiCo makes and sells snacks and drinks — chips, sodas, sports drinks, and more — that people buy in stores and vending machines around the world.
PepsiCo is one of the world's biggest snack and drink companies, and it runs two very different businesses under one roof. One side makes salty snacks like Lay's potato chips, Doritos tortilla chips, and Cheetos. The other side makes drinks like Pepsi cola, Gatorade sports drinks, and Tropicana orange juice. People buy these in grocery stores, convenience stores, restaurants, and vending machines, and the company also sells concentrate to bottlers and fountain-soda customers like fast-food chains.
The snack business is the quieter powerhouse. Frito-Lay controls a huge share of the salty-snack aisle in the United States, which gives PepsiCo real pricing power — it can nudge prices up and shoppers mostly keep buying. The drink business is a tougher fight, because Coca-Cola is a fierce rival and store brands undercut on price. PepsiCo's edge is that snacks and drinks travel together: it can sell both to the same stores and restaurants, and its delivery trucks reach nearly every corner shop. Its headquarters in Purchase, New York, sits near the big East Coast markets it serves. The company's scale is enormous — annual revenue has been running above $90 billion in recent years. But growth has gotten harder. Shoppers have pushed back on higher prices, and in 2024 and 2025 the company worked to win back budget-conscious customers, especially in its North American snack and beverage business, while leaning more on its international markets, which have grown faster. PepsiCo also owns Quaker oats and a portfolio of other food brands, giving it more ways to reach the breakfast table and the pantry.
PepsiCo throws off lots of cash, and it returns much of it to shareholders. It pays a long-standing dividend and buys back stock, and it's known as a "dividend king" for raising its payout for more than 50 straight years. It also spends heavily on advertising and on acquiring brands. The honest picture: a steady, cash-rich business with strong snack dominance, but one that faces real pressure from price-sensitive shoppers and a relentless cola rival.
Saved answer · last researched 22 Oct 2026