PepsiCo is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage giant that has remained in Russia despite the country’s unprovoked and illegal war against Ukraine.
PepsiCo produces soft drinks, juices, chips, snacks, dairy products and other food products under the main brands Chester’s, Chipsy, Lay’s, Mirinda, Pasta Roni, Pepsi, Propel, Sandora, 7Up, Simba, Snack a Jacks, Sonric’s, Tropicana, etc. The corporation is headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase.
In Russia, PepsiCo operates 19 plants and employs about 60,000 people. Currently, almost 600 vacancies in Russia are posted on the company’s official website. In 2023, the multinational generated $4.2 billion in revenue in Russia, with PepsiCo paying $135 million just in profit taxes to Russia’s fully militarized economy. PepsiCo Holdings LLC operates 21 branches across various regions of Russia and has a representative office in Moscow-controlled Belarus. Additionally, they own 80 brands registered with Rospatent, most of which have recently been extended until 2033.
In March 2022, the company announced the cessation of advertising activities and the production of some beverages in Russia, while still allowing “essential” products such as infant formula and baby food to be sold in order to “stay true to the humanitarian aspect of its business.”
Yet, the company continues the production and distribution of chips, snacks, and soft drinks. By September 2022, the corporation stated that they had stopped the production of Pepsi, 7UP, and Mountain Dew in Russia. However, PepsiCo did not reduce the assortment, but began producing these drinks under different names. For example, 7UP and Mirinda were rebranded as Frustyle, Pepsi became Evervess, and “Любимая кола” (“Favorite Cola”). Regular Pepsi-Cola is also still easily purchasable in Russian supermarkets due to the so-called parallel imports when goods are imported without the manufacturer’s permission.
- Ukrainians Protest to Boycott Pepsi, Sydney, Australia - 24 Mar 2022
Treating PepsiCo’s tax contributions to the Kremlin as support for the aggressor state’s war economy, Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) included the company in its list of international sponsors of war in September 2023. After the designation, the global snack and beverage giant came under fire when Helsinki municipality, the Finnish parliament, and Scandinavian Airlines’ operator SAS dropped its products. In the same month, the Russian missile damaged a PepsiCo plant near Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.
When looking for a new advertising/PR agency in Ukraine in autumn 2023, PepsiCo made it a condition for a potential partner to exclude any mention of the war, or support for Ukraine and its army in future communications, according to a brief seen by B4Ukraine.
The B4Ukraine Coalition repeatedly reached out to PepsiCo offices in Ukraine and the US to initiate a dialogue, but received no response. B4Ukraine contacted PepsiCo to ask for comment on this article but at the time of publication had not received any response.
In 2024, when Russian war crimes in Ukraine surpassed 130,000, PepsiCo opened a new plant in Russia with a snack production capacity of 60,000 tons per year.
At a time of extreme difficulty for Ukraine in its pursuit of freedom and survival, not a single penny of corporate money should go to Russia’s militarized budget. It’s time to use all available leverage to ensure PepsiCo fully withdraws from the Russian market until Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity are restored.
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