PepsiCo has experienced a surprise drop in its fourth quarter of sales, which the FMCG giant has blamed on consumers turning away from higher-priced products.
Pepsi’s golden-quarter net sales performance unexpectedly fell 0.5% to £22.05bn ($27.85bn), the first drop in 14 quarters.
For the full year, sales grew 5.9%, but the company said demand had begun to wane due to shoppers being put off by elevated prices.
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PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta added: “We knew that they weren’t going to be able to push through as much pricing as they have in the past”, reported Reuters.
The drinks and snacks giant, which owns brands such as Pepsi, Tropicana, Quaker Oats Company and Doritos, also forecast sales growth of at least 4% in the year ahead.
The news follows Europe’s largest grocer, Carrefour, stopping stocking PepsiCo’s brands “due to unacceptable price increases“.
