PepsiCo bites into Southeast Asia with expansion partnership

The US titan will target Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, pushing its Lay’s Stax, Doritos, Ruffles and Quaker brands among others.

It will be supported with import, marketing, sales, distribution, logistics and back office services from DKSH For the snack brands in these markets.

“DKSH has a long and very successful presence with a strong customer base and we are confident that these local business partners will also be excited about the opportunity to have access to PepsiCo’s high-quality brands,”​ said Somboon Prasitjutrakul, head of consumer goods at DKSH.

PepsiCo snacks on Asia​

Just last week PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi highlighted the importance of emerging markets, particularly Asia, to the growth of its snacks business.

For the first quarter (Q1) of 2013 PepsiCo recorded a 4% sales volume rise in snacks and cited “huge strength”​ in emerging markets as the driver behind this surge. In China, the firm almost doubled its growth.

For some time PepsiCo has been dedicated to driving growth in China’s soaring snacks sector, opening up a snacks plant in Wuhan in July last year and continuing to develop market-specific flavors.

Market expansion specialist​

DKSH and PepsiCo already have partnerships in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and China to work on market expansion for the US firm’s imported foods businesses.

The market expansion firm said this expanded partnership with PepsiCo in Asia should help strengthen DKSH’s position in the food and snack market.