In a pair of healthy signs for the economy, Somers-based Pepsi Bottling Group Inc. (PBG) plans to expand its sales force over the next year, Chairman and CEO Eric Foss said recently, and the PBG ticker is up.
PBG did not disclose specific jobs or where the new positions would land.
Dow Jones News Service grouped Foss with other big food-and-drink outfits now showing an interest in hiring more sales people. The foodservice company Sysco Corp. (SYY) recently said it was hiring back sales representatives, and ConAgra Foods Inc. (CAG) on recently said it, too, would beef up its sales team.
Pepsi Bottling is also rethinking its “price-packaging” architecture, according to Dow Jones, offering cans of soda in eight- and 18-pack denominations, as opposed to its 12- and 24-pack offerings. That offers another level of price points, and “more consumer value,” Foss said.
Pepsi Bottling is in the midst of being rolled into Pepsico Inc., which is buying two of its largest bottlers in a $7.8 billion deal. Foss is expected to head the combined bottling unit when the deal closes in 2010.
PBG also reported higher third-quarter profit. Net income rose to $310 million from $274 million in the prior-year quarter, and net income was $254 million or $1.14 per share, compared with $231 million or $1.06 per share last year.
PBG”™s earnings for the third quarter were $1.06 per share.
Net revenues dropped 5 percent to $3.63 billion from $3.81 billion in the 2008 quarter, reflecting lower volume.
