PepsiCo delivers strong Q4 results

PepsiCo has reported volume, revenue and profit growth for the fourth quarter and full year of 2010 driven by gains across its worldwide snacks and beverage businesses, and from the acquisitions of its anchor bottlers earlier in the year.

Full-year reported earnings per share increased 4% to $3.91, core earnings per share increased 12% to $4.13 and core constant currency earnings per share grew 12%.

For the quarter, reported EPS declined 6% to $0.85, core EPS grew 17% to $1.05, and core constant currency EPS grew 19%.

Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi noted three realities as the company enters 2011:

- A weak consumer landscape given the poor macroeconomic picture, especially the high level of unemployment in key developed markets;

- High levels of cost inflation for the coming year, driven by broad and pronounced commodity inflation; and

- A potentially difficult competitive pricing environment, particularly in beverages.

"We delivered more than $150 million in synergies from the bottler acquisitions in 2010, above our target for the year. The strong pace of synergy realization and the identification of additional synergies have led us to increase our expectation for total synergies through 2012 to more than $550 million," said CFO Hugh Johnston.