PepsiCo (PEP) Risk Factors

We have recalled, and could in the future recall, products due to product quality or safety issues, including actual or alleged mislabeling, misbranding, spoilage, undeclared allergens, adulteration or contamination. Joint ventures in which we have an interest have also recalled, and could in the future recall, products for the same or other reasons. Product recalls, including the voluntary recall of certain bars and cereals in our QFNA division (Quaker Recall), have in the past and could in the future adversely affect our business by resulting in losses due to their cost, the destruction of product inventory, customer fines and returns or lost sales due to any unavailability of the product for a period of time. In addition, product quality or safety issues have in the past and could in the future also reduce consumer confidence and demand for our products, cause production and delivery disruptions, including as a result of temporary or permanent closure of manufacturing plants or facilities, and result in increased costs (including payment of fines and/or judgments, cleaning and remediation costs and legal fees, and costs associated with alternative sources of production) and damage our reputation (or the reputation of joint ventures in which we have an interest), particularly as we or our joint ventures continue to expand into new categories, all of which can adversely affect our business. Any perception or allegation (whether or not valid) of failure to maintain adequate oversight over product quality or safety can result in product recalls, litigation, government investigations or inquiries or civil or criminal proceedings, all of which may result in fines, penalties, damages or criminal liability. Our business can also be adversely affected if consumers lose confidence in product quality, safety and integrity generally, even if such loss of confidence is unrelated to products in our portfolio. In addition, while we currently maintain insurance coverage that, subject to its terms and conditions, is intended to address costs associated with certain aspects of product recalls, this insurance coverage may not, depending on the specific facts and circumstances surrounding an incident, cover all losses or all types of claims that arise from an incident, or the damage to our reputation or brands that may result from an incident.

We conduct impairment tests on our goodwill and other indefinite-lived intangible assets annually or more frequently if circumstances indicate that impairment may have occurred. In addition, amortizable intangible assets, equity method investments, equity investments without readily determinable fair values, investments in available-for-sale debt securities, property, plant and equipment and other long-lived assets are evaluated for impairment upon a significant change in the operating or macroeconomic environment. Our equity method investees also perform similar impairment tests and we record our proportionate share of impairment charges recorded by them, adjusted for the impact of items such as basis differences and deferred taxes, as appropriate. A deterioration in our underlying assumptions, or those of our equity method investees, regarding the impact of competitive operating conditions, geopolitical conditions (including the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East), macroeconomic conditions, including the interest rate environment, or other factors used to estimate the future performance of any of our reporting units or assets, including any deterioration in the weighted-average cost of capital based on market data available at the time, as well as our ability to hold the investment until recovery of fair value to amortized cost for available-for-sale debt securities, have resulted and could in the future result in an impairment charge, thereby adversely affecting our results of operations.

Rating agencies routinely evaluate us and their ratings are based on a number of factors, including our cash generating capability, levels of indebtedness, policies with respect to shareholder distributions and our financial strength generally, as well as factors beyond our control, such as the state of the economy and our industry. We expect to maintain Tier 1 commercial paper access, which we believe will facilitate appropriate financial flexibility and ready access to global credit markets at favorable interest rates. Any downgrade or announcement that we are under review for a potential downgrade of our credit ratings, especially any downgrade to below investment grade, can increase our future borrowing costs, impair our ability to access capital and credit markets on terms commercially acceptable to us or at all, result in a reduction in our liquidity, or impair our ability to access the commercial paper market with the same flexibility that we have experienced historically (and therefore require us to rely more heavily on more expensive types of debt financing), all of which can adversely affect our financial performance.

Because our consolidated financial statements are presented in U.S. dollars, the financial statements of our subsidiaries outside the United States, where the functional currency is other than the U.S. dollar, are translated into U.S. dollars. Given our global operations, we also pay for the ingredients, raw materials and commodities used in our business in numerous currencies. Fluctuations in exchange rates, including as a result of inflation, central bank monetary policies, currency controls or other currency exchange restrictions or geopolitical instability have had, and could continue to have, an adverse impact on our financial performance.

Our products compete against products of international beverage and convenient food companies that, like us, operate in multiple geographies, as well as regional, local and private label and economy brand manufacturers and other competitors, including smaller companies developing and selling micro brands directly to consumers through e-commerce platforms or through retailers focused on locally sourced products. In many countries in which our products are sold, including the United States, The Coca-Cola Company is our primary beverage competitor. Our products compete primarily on the basis of brand recognition and loyalty, taste, price, value, quality, product variety, innovation, distribution, shelf space, advertising, marketing and promotional activity, packaging, convenience, service and the ability to anticipate and effectively respond to consumer preferences and trends. Our business can be adversely affected if we are unable to effectively promote or develop our existing products or introduce and effectively market new products, if we are unable to effectively adopt new technologies, including artificial intelligence and data analytics to develop new commercial insights and improve operating efficiencies, if we are unable to continuously strengthen and evolve our capabilities in digital marketing, if our competitors spend more aggressively or effectively than we do or if we are otherwise unable to effectively respond to supply disruptions, pricing pressure (including as a result of commodity inflation) or otherwise compete effectively, and we may be unable to grow or maintain sales or category share or we may need to increase capital, marketing or other expenditures.

Demand for our products depends in part on our ability to innovate and anticipate and effectively respond to shifts in consumer trends and preferences, including the types of products our consumers want and how they browse for, purchase and consume them. Consumer preferences continuously evolve due to a variety of factors, including: changes in consumer demographics, consumption patterns, diet (whether due to changes in consumer behavior and eating habits, the use of weight-loss drugs or other factors) and channel preferences (including continued increases in the e-commerce and online-to-offline channels); pricing; product quality; concerns or perceptions regarding packaging and its environmental impact (such as single-use and other plastic packaging); and concerns or perceptions regarding the nutrition profile and health effects of, or location of origin of, ingredients or substances in our products or packaging, including due to the results of third-party studies (whether or not scientifically valid). Concerns with any of the foregoing could lead consumers to reduce or publicly boycott the purchase or consumption of our products. Pandemics, epidemics or other disease outbreaks, such as COVID-19, and geopolitical events, wars and other military conflicts have also impacted and could continue to impact consumer preferences and demand for our products. Consumer preferences are also influenced by perception of our brand image or the brand images of our products, the success of our advertising and marketing campaigns, our ability to engage with our consumers in the manner they prefer, including through the use of digital media or assets, and the perception of our use of social media and our response to political and social issues, geopolitical events, wars and other military conflicts or catastrophic events. These and other factors have reduced and could continue to reduce consumers' willingness to purchase certain of our products, including as a result of public boycotts. Any inability on our part to anticipate or react to changes in consumer preferences and trends, or make the right strategic investments to do so, including investments in data analytics to understand consumer trends, can lead to reduced demand for our products, lead to inventory write-offs or erode our competitive and financial position, thereby adversely affecting our business. In addition, our business operations, including our supply chain, are subject to disruption by geopolitical events, wars and other military conflicts, natural disasters, pandemics, epidemics or other events beyond our control that could negatively impact product availability and decrease demand for our products if our crisis management plans do not effectively mitigate these issues.

The retail landscape continues to evolve, including continued growth in e-commerce channels and hard discounters. Our business will be adversely affected if we are unable to maintain and develop successful relationships with e-commerce retailers and hard discounters, while also maintaining relationships with our key customers operating in traditional retail channels (many of whom are also focused on increasing their e-commerce sales). Our business can be adversely affected if e-commerce channels and hard discounters take significant additional market share away from traditional retailers or we fail to find ways to create increasingly better digital tools and capabilities for our retail customers to enable them to grow their businesses. In addition, our business can be adversely affected if we are unable to profitably expand our own direct-to-consumer e-commerce capabilities. The retail industry is also impacted by the actions and increasing power of retailers, including as a result of increased consolidation of ownership resulting in large retailers or buying groups with increased purchasing power, particularly in North America, Europe and Latin America. In this changing retail landscape, retailers and buying groups have impacted and may continue to impact our ability to compete in these jurisdictions by demanding lower prices or increased promotional programs, removing our products or otherwise reducing shelf space allocated to our products. The increasing power of retailers and consolidation also adversely impacts our smaller customers' ability to compete effectively, resulting in an inability on their part to pay for our products or reduced or canceled orders of our products. Further, we must maintain mutually beneficial relationships with our key customers, including Walmart, to compete effectively. Our inability to resolve a significant dispute with any of our key customers, a change in the business condition (financial or otherwise) of any of our key customers, even if unrelated to us, a significant reduction in sales to any key customer, or the loss of any of our key customers has adversely affected and can continue to adversely affect our business.

Maintaining a positive reputation globally is critical to selling our products. Our reputation or brand image has in the past been, and could in the future be, adversely impacted by a variety of factors, including: any failure by us, our business partners, or other actors in the supply chain to maintain high ethical, business and environmental, social and governance practices, including with respect to human rights, child labor, diversity, equity and inclusion, workplace conditions and employee health and safety; any failure, or perception of a failure, to achieve our environmental, social and governance goals, or any negative perception toward such goals, including with respect to the nutrition profile of our products, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, packaging, water use and our impact on the environment; any failure to address health or other concerns about our products, products we distribute (including alcoholic beverages), or particular ingredients in our products, including concerns regarding whether certain of our products contribute to obesity and other health conditions or an increase in public health costs; our research and development efforts; any product quality or safety issues, including the recall of any of our products; any failure to comply with laws and regulations; consumer perception of our advertising campaigns, sponsorship arrangements, marketing programs, use of social media and our response to political and social issues, geopolitical events, wars and other military conflicts or catastrophic events; or any failure to effectively respond to negative or inaccurate comments about us on social media or otherwise regarding any of the foregoing. Damage to our reputation or brand image has in the past and could in the future decrease demand for our products, thereby adversely affecting our business.

We possess intellectual property rights that are important to our business, including ingredient formulas, trademarks, copyrights, patents, business processes and other trade secrets. The laws of various jurisdictions in which we operate have differing levels of protection of intellectual property. Our competitive position and the value of our products and brands can be reduced and our business adversely affected if we fail to obtain or adequately protect our intellectual property, including our ingredient formulas, or if there is a change in law that limits or removes the current legal protections afforded our intellectual property. Also, in the course of developing new products or improving the quality of existing products, we have in the past been alleged to have infringed, and could in the future infringe or be alleged to infringe, on the intellectual property rights of others. Such infringement or allegations of infringement could result in expensive litigation and damages, damage to our reputation, disruption to our operations, injunctions against development, manufacturing, use and/or sale of certain products, inventory write-offs or other limitations on our ability to introduce new products or improve the quality of existing products, resulting in an adverse effect on our business.

We depend on information systems and technology, including public websites and cloud-based services, for many activities important to our business, including communications within our company, interfacing with customers and consumers; ordering and managing inventory; managing and operating our facilities; protecting confidential information, including personal data we collect; maintaining accurate financial records and complying with regulatory, financial reporting, legal and tax requirements. Our business has in the past and could in the future be negatively affected by system shutdowns, degraded systems performance, systems disruptions or security incidents. These disruptions or incidents may be caused by cyberattacks and other cyber incidents, network or power outages, software, equipment or telecommunications failures, the unintentional or malicious actions of employees or contractors, natural disasters, fires or other catastrophic events. In addition, the increase in certain of our employees working remotely has resulted in increased demand on our information technology infrastructure, which can be subject to failure, disruption or unavailability, and increased vulnerability to cyberattacks and other cyber incidents. Cyberattacks and other cyber incidents are occurring more frequently, the techniques used to gain access to information technology systems and data, disable or degrade service or sabotage systems are constantly evolving and becoming more sophisticated in nature and are being carried out by groups and individuals with a wide range of expertise and motives. In addition, the rapid evolution and increased adoption of artificial intelligence technologies may increase our cybersecurity risks, including generative artificial intelligence augmenting threat actors' technological sophistication to enhance existing or create new malware. Cyberattacks and cyber incidents may be difficult to detect for periods of time and take many forms including cyber extortion, denial of service, social engineering, introduction of viruses or malware (such as ransomware), exploiting vulnerabilities in hardware, software or other infrastructure, hacking, website defacement or theft of passwords and other credentials, unauthorized use of computing resources for digital currency mining and business email compromise. As with other global companies, we are regularly subject to cyberattacks and other cyber incidents, including the types of attacks and incidents described above. Continued geopolitical instability has heightened the risk of cyberattacks. If we do not allocate and effectively manage the resources necessary to continue building and maintaining our information technology infrastructure, or if we fail to timely identify or appropriately respond to cyberattacks or other cyber incidents, our business has been and can continue to be adversely affected, which has resulted in and can continue to result in some or all of the following: transaction errors, processing inefficiencies, inability to access our data or systems, lost revenues or other costs resulting from disruptions or shutdowns of offices, plants, warehouses, distribution centers or other facilities,intellectual property or other data loss, litigation, claims, legal or regulatory proceedings, inquiries or investigations, fines or penalties, remediation costs, damage to our reputation or a negative impact on employee morale and the loss of current or potential customers. In addition, these risks also exist in acquired businesses, joint ventures or companies we invest in or partner with that use separate information systems or that have not yet been fully integrated into our information systems. Similar risks exist with respect to our business partners and third-party providers, including suppliers, software and cloud-based service providers, that we rely upon for aspects of various business processes and activities, including procurement, supply chain, manufacturing, distribution, information technology support services and administrative functions (including payroll processing, health and benefit plan administration and certain finance and accounting functions) and the systems managed, hosted, provided and/or used by such third parties and their vendors. For example, malicious actors have employed and could continue to employ the information technology supply chain to introduce malware through software updates or compromised supplier accounts or hardware and exploit known or unknown hardware or software vulnerabilities in our systems or the systems of our vendors and third-party service providers. The need to coordinate with various third-party service providers, including with respect to timely notification and access to personnel and information concerning an incident, may complicate our efforts to address issues that arise. As a result, we are subject to the risk that the activities associated with our third-party service providers can adversely affect our business even if the attack or breach does not directly impact our systems or information. Although the cyber incidents and other systems disruptions that we have experienced to date have not had a material effect on our business, such incidents or disruptions could have a material adverse effect on us in the future. While we believe we devote significant resources to network security, disaster recovery, employee training and other measures to secure our information technology systems and prevent unauthorized access to or loss of data, there are no guarantees that they will be adequate to safeguard against all cyber incidents, systems disruptions, system compromises or misuses of data. In addition, while we currently maintain insurance coverage that, subject to its terms and conditions, is intended to address costs associated with certain aspects of cyber incidents and information systems failures, this insurance coverage may not, depending on the specific facts and circumstances surrounding an incident, cover all losses or all types of claims that arise from an incident, or the damage to our reputation or brands that may result from an incident.