PepsiCo, Coca-Cola Have Large Stakes in Russia, Ukraine

PepsiCo Inc. has billions of dollars at stake in Russia, its second-largest market by revenue after the U.S. The Purchase, N.Y.-based snack and beverage giant would have a difficult time picking up and leaving: It had $7.89 billion in "long-lived" assets including property, plants and equipment in Russia alone last year, or 15% of its global assets, according to a regulatory filing by the company.

The company doesn't disclose its revenue in Ukraine but has subsidiaries in the country and teamed up with a bottling partner in 2007 to acquire Sandora LLC. PepsiCo said at the time that Sandora was Ukraine's largest juice company with a market share of about 50% and more than 3,500 employees.

PepsiCo declined to comment Monday on the evolving crisis in Russia and Ukraine.

The company has a long history in the region: Its flagship cola became the first Western branded consumer product bottled in the Soviet Union in 1974 after Premier Nikita Khruschev famously sampled it at a Moscow exhibition 15 years earlier.

Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co., the world's largest beverage company by revenue, is less exposed to Russia than PepsiCo.

Still, Russia has been an important focus for Coke amid slowing sales in many more developed markets. The company spent heavily in recent months marketing its drinks as a sponsor of this February's Winter Olympics in Sochi--including accompanying the Olympic torch relay on its 123-day, 35,000-mile journey across the country.

It had $7.89 billion in "long-lived" assets including property, plants and equipment in Russia alone last year, or 15% of its global assets...

Too bad, ...they can walk away and have less for campaign contribution to the American left.

Interesting point, I had to look around.

Capital Rivals: The Cola Wars in Washington

by Kathleen Ronayne on September 16, 2011 2:00 PM

Employee Contributions

Which candidates or political parties a company's PAC supports can say a lot about what influence that company is striving for. But that's only part of the story. The Center for Responsive Politics also tracks donations by individual employees of companies and organizations -- an aspect of the political influence process that can be equally revealing.

As with contributions from PACs, individuals associated with Pepsi give more than those associated with Coca-Cola. Since the 1990 election cycle, Pepsi's employees, and their spouses, have contributed twice as much as people associated with Coca-Cola -- at about $1.8 million versus about $900,000.

Notably, when combining individual donations and PAC donations, Republicans have received more than Democrats from both soft-drink companies. This is true for Coca-Cola to a lesser degree than Pepsi, with 56 percent of Coke-related contributions going to Republicans, compared to Pepsi's 73 percent.

...

The PACs actually leaned slightly Republican in 2014:

Pepsi's PAC

Coca-Cola's PAC

Should we look into their relationships and funding of globalism ? I didn't expect that. I know Coca-Cola's based in Atlanta, but Pepsi is in NY State. Go figure.

To be honest, I don't know anymore where we should look, or whether the Republicans are anywhere near the right anymore.

Logic would dictate that soft drink companies would resist sugar taxes and kiddie taxes. Logic would also note that canned soft drinks are a safe source of hydration in third world nations.

Why the left's hatred for these corporations and their submission to it?

Add to that the revenue scam of container deposit and redistribution in the Ghetto Market.

NOTHING makes any sense anymore.

The Russian propaganda machine missed this one:

Are you still peddling the notion that the Kiev Putsch was a spontaneous indigenous 'pro-democracy' movement that sprang up from a common desire for Greek style economic austerity?

/lol

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