PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi to step down
Ramon Laguarta taking over at beverage giant
PepsiCo CEO and Chairman Indra Nooyi will relinquish her post, the beverage and snack giant said Monday.
Nooyi, who spent the last 12 of her 24 years with the company in the top job, will be succeeded as CEO by PepsiCo’s president, Ramon Laguarta. He will become the global giant’s sixth CEO.
Nooyi will leave executive leadership in October and step down as chairman in early 2019, the company said.
“Leading PepsiCo has truly been the honor of my lifetime, and I’m incredibly proud of all we have done over the past 12 years to advance the interests not only of shareholders, but all our stakeholders in the communities we serve,” Nooyi said in a statement.
Her tenure has been defined by responding to a shift in consumer preferences for food and drinks.
Like its archrival Coca-Cola, PepsiCo has strained to keep sales humming in recent years as consumers increasingly shy away from sugary beverages and packaged foods.
In addition to its namesake Pepsi soda brand, the company’s products include Mountain Dew soda, Gatorade energy drinks, Lay’s potato chips and Quaker outmeal.
Under Nooyi’s leadership, the company has acquired or launched a wide variety of products designed to appeal to customers seeking more natural ingredients.
Products the company considers “good for you” or “better for you” now make up 50 percent of the company’s business, up from 38 percent in 2006.
“It was her insistence on building up and maintaining a strong snack business that was most prescient. With demand for soda under pressure, PepsiCo can now take comfort in the fact that it has a balanced portfolio of products, including in emerging areas like plant-based snacks from its recent acquisition of Bare Foods,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail.
The incoming CEO, Laguarta, has worked for PepsiCo for 22 years and has been president since 2017, according to the company. He previously was CEO of PepsiCo’s Europe Sub-Saharan Africa division and president of its Eastern Europe region and held sales, marketing and other roles across Europe. Before PepsiCo, Laguarta – who has an MBA from ESADE Business School in Spain and a master’s in international management Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management – worked for Chupa Chups, Spanish confectionery company. He’s from Barcelona and is fluent in several languages, including English, Spanish, French, German and Greek. According to Saunders, Laguarta is well-versed in all things PepsiCo and has direct experience in areas that are key to the company’s future.