Exclusive-PepsiCo ends Pepsi, 7UP production in Russia months after
promising halt over Ukraine
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[September 20, 2022] By
Jessica DiNapoli and Alexander Marrow
NEW YORK/MOSCOW (Reuters) - PepsiCo Inc has
stopped making Pepsi, 7UP and Mountain Dew in Russia nearly six months
after the U.S. company said it would suspend sales and production after
Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine.
Pepsi's announcement came after Reuters visited dozens of supermarkets,
retailers and gyms in Moscow and beyond and found cans and bottles of
Pepsi printed with July and August production dates from factories
within Russia.
The most recent date on a Pepsi product was Aug. 17.
In a statement to Reuters, the U.S. company said it had stopped making
concentrates for PepsiCola, Mirinda, 7Up and Mountain Dew in Russia.
"All concentrates have subsequently been exhausted in Russia and
production has ended," a PepsiCo spokesperson said on Sept. 8, the first
public comments on the matter since the company announced in early March
it was suspending production, sales, promotional activities and
advertising in Russia.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Sep/20/images/ads/current/castlemanor_sda_FINANCIAL_2017.png)
The spokesperson said this was "in line with the announcement we made in
March 2022" but declined to comment when asked for an update on sales
and whether they had been halted.
The continued production means sodas are still widely available in
Moscow and also in Vladivostok in the far east and Krasnoyarsk in
Siberia, according to a review by Reuters.
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![](../images/092022PIX/busine71.jpg)
A view shows a shelf with bottles of
Pepsi at a grocery store in Moscow, Russia September 9, 2022.
REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Sep/20/images/ads/current/debbiesfloral_lda_082422.png)
A gym owner in Moscow said it had placed an order with Pepsi as
recently as mid-August.
The West has not sanctioned food and drink as part of sweeping
measures aimed at punishing Russia over its actions in Ukraine.
But the continued availability highlights the complexity of
withdrawing from one of the world's largest countries. In 2021,
Russia was New York-based Pepsi's third-biggest market, after the
United States and Mexico.
Earlier in the summer, shops in the capital were still selling off
stockpiles of foreign beers, months after the brewers said they
would halt production.
Atlanta-based rival Coca-Cola Co's production in Russia also
continued after it said in March it would suspend operations.
The company said in June its bottler, Coca-Cola HBC AG, a separate
company, and existing customers in Russia were depleting stock,
after which production and sales of Coke and other brands would stop
in Russia.
PepsiCo in March said it would continue to sell daily essentials,
such as milk and other dairy offerings, baby formula and baby food,
in Russia. The company has operated in Russia for more than 60 years
and its colas were one of the few Western products allowed in the
Soviet Union prior to its collapse.
(Reporting by Alexander Marrow in Moscow and Jessica DiNapoli in New
York; Editing by Josephine Mason and Lisa Shumaker)
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