17 Sep 2013 US: Turbo-charged Mountain Dew CSD proves a hit

The carbonated beverage, which is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, ace K and sucralose, has 5% juice, vitamins, and 92mg of caffeine in a 448ml (16oz) can.

Labelled as a “flavored sparkling juice beverage from concentrate”, it comes in two flavours: Orange Citrus and Fruit Punch and has 80 calories per can.

In a BeverageDaily.com report, PepsiCo president Zein Abdalla said: “Looking at scalable innovation platforms, Kickstart is a great example of this.

“We launched ‘Kickstart Your Day’, a morning proposition for Millennials who would rather drink a Mountain Dew proposition than coffee, and this has proved incredibly successful building a greater than $100-million business in its first year of launch.

“But again, thinking about that as a platform, ‘Kickstart Your Day’ can easily transform into ‘Kickstart Your Night’ and that will follow, leveraging again a lot of the same technology but targeting a different consumer space.”

While volumes of CSDs and cola in particular have been declining in North America, he said, “beverages globally is a 5% growth category”.

He added: “We are the largest supplier to the US retail trade in food and beverages and we have nine out of the 40 top trademarks.

Turning to China, he believes it is going to be “the single largest driver of growth for any FMCG company going forward”.

“Franchising in China and developing our partnership with the Tingyi Company [makes] us the number one food and beverage company in that geography by some order of magnitude,” he said. 

Click here to read about PepsiCo’s exploration of Chinese herbal ingredients for more ‘natural’ energy drinks.