PepsiCo is to resume selling its products through Biedronka, Poland’s largest grocery retailer.
The US giant’s products have reportedly been absent from Biedronka’s shelves for two years due to differences over price.
However, multiple media reports in Poland have confirmed the two sides have reached an agreement that will PepsiCo snacks and drinks return to Biedronka stores.
The retailer – which accounted for 20% of Poland’s food and grocery retail sales in 2023, more than triple the level of its nearest rival – confirmed PepsiCo products would go back on sale.
In a brief statement sent to Just Food, Biedronka said: “Our absolute priority is to offer customers a wide range of products at the best prices on the Polish market and the return of these products to the shelves of Biedronka chain stores should be treated as such.”
The retailer declined to comment further.
In a statement carried by Polish sector news website dlahandlu.pl, Dagmara Piasecka Ramos, the general manager of PepsiCo’s business in Poland, said: “We are very pleased with the positive conclusion of trade negotiations between PepsiCo and Jeronimo Martins. As a result, from June this year, Pepsi, Mirinda, 7Up and Lipton Ice Tea drinks and Lay’s, Doritos and Cheetos snacks, which many people missed, are back on the shelves of Biedronka discount stores.”
Just Food approached PepsiCo for comment.
Earlier this year, PepsiCo products were delisted at Carrefour’s stores in Poland as part of a broader dispute over terms with the France-based retailer.
Carrefour outlets in Poland, France, Spain, Italy and Belgium stopped stocking the products. That row was resolved by April.
In 2023, PepsiCo’s Europe division generated net revenue of $13.23bn, versus $12.72bn a year earlier, a 4% increase. On an organic basis, revenue grew 14%.
The group’s total net revenue in 2023 was $91.47bn.
The unit made an operating profit of $767m, against a loss of $1.38bn in 2022, a year marked by impairment charges partly linked to the war in Ukraine.
In the first quarter of PepsiCo’s 2024 financial year, three months that ran to 23 March, its revenue and operating profit in Europe both grew year on year.
Revenue stood at $1.94bn, against $1.89bn in the opening three months of the 2023 financial period. Operating profit was $202m, versus $71m in the first quarter of 2023.
