PepsiCo 2020 DE&I Report Illustrates Company's Progressive Journey from Commitment to Action

PURCHASE, N.Y., July 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEP) today published its 2020 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) Report, debuting an evolved global strategy underpinned by "A Space to be You"— a fundamental belief that goes beyond the PepsiCo walls to foster diverse, equitable, and inclusive principles not only throughout the organization, but also across its business partners and communities it serves. The report outlines PepsiCo's diversity journey, while pointing to its progress and commitments across three distinct pillars: People, Business, and Communities, taking a holistic view at the impact made by the company in the last year.

"Like many of our peers, PepsiCo is on a journey from awareness to commitment to action," said Ramon Laguarta, PepsiCo's Chairman and CEO. "I am proud to say that our commitment to equity and inclusion is stronger today than at any time in our history. We understand that diversity of thought and experience gives us valuable strategic insights, fuels our innovation, and helps us attract the best talent. But even though I am proud of our progress, I know there is still more work to do. As we take the next steps on our journey, we will remain committed to the principles of diversity and transparency, whilst stepping up our action in partnership with employees, consumers, customers, and communities."

PepsiCo's diversity agenda, which has evolved from Diversity & Engagement to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, is a step forward to unlock the organization's ability to further innovate for its consumers, deliver first-class service for its customers, and cultivate a workforce that accurately reflects its communities.

The company shared progress in its 2020 DE&I Report, including the following highlights:

A space for People to be themselves:

• Advancing Gender Parity globally with progress currently at 41%.
• Increasing Black and Hispanic Representation, at 8% and 9% respectively, PepsiCo is on track to meet the goal of increasing managerial representation in the U.S. to 10% by 2025 in order to mirror workforce availability.
• This goal is part of PepsiCo's Racial Equality Journey, an investment of more than $570+ million over five years to uplift Black and Hispanic communities in the U.S. while also increasing representation of those respective communities within PepsiCo.

A space for Business partners to progress:

• Investing in diverse suppliers by expanding existing supplier base and growing the spend by more than $35M incrementally in 2021 with Black and Hispanic suppliers.
• Amplifying Diverse Voices with the launch of products and campaigns, including eQlibri® Popcorn in Brazil, a product designed by women for women and featuring women in its advertising. The brand's "Estoure-se" campaign encourages women to transform and share the best of themselves. In Mexico, Doritos Rainbow created the 1 Million Kisses digital campaign and donated $50,000 to Cuenta Conmigo, an organization that provides programs and services that improve the lives of LGBTQ+ people and their families.

A space for Communities to thrive:

• Unlocking opportunities & cultivating future talent like The PepsiCo Foundation's partnership with Amal Academy, a leading nonprofit organization seeking to close the employment gap in Pakistan by helping graduates build bridges to their dream jobs through soft skill trainings and job placement. To date, 3,300+ youth have been positively impacted, with 80% job-offer rate. Additionally, the company offered virtual internships to 300 students, half of which were women.
• Meeting the needs of our local communities with the investment of more than $71 million and working with 250+ partners to bring food and other vital resources to global communities most impacted by COVID-19. As part of this effort, funding was used to provide for protective gear for healthcare workers, testing and screening services, and the distribution of 145+ million nutritious meals to at-risk populations.

"PepsiCo's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion agenda is more critical than ever following a year of such adversity that disproportionately affected underserved populations," said Tina Bigalke, PepsiCo Global Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer. "I am proud of the progress we've made so far and equally motivated to continue pushing us to drive measurable impact and meaningful change."

The all-digital and interactive 2020 DE&I Report includes a snapshot of PepsiCo's diversity journey, pillar focus areas, progress against goals and other resources. The report and downloadable assets are available here.

For more information, contact: pepsicomediarelations@pepsico.com

About PepsiCo

PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $70 billion in net revenue in 2020, driven by a complementary food and beverage portfolio that includes Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker, Tropicana and SodaStream. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including 23 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.

Guiding PepsiCo is our vision to Be the Global Leader in Convenient Foods and Beverages by Winning with Purpose. "Winning with Purpose" reflects our ambition to win sustainably in the marketplace and embed purpose into all aspects of our business strategy and brands. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com.

Cautionary Statement

This release contains statements reflecting our views about our future performance that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are generally identified through the inclusion of words such as "aim," "anticipate," "believe," "drive," "estimate," "expect," "goal," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "strategy," "target" and "will" or similar statements or variations of such terms and other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted in such statements, including the impact of COVID-19; future demand for PepsiCo's products; damage to PepsiCo's reputation or brand image; issues or concerns with respect to product quality and safety; PepsiCo's ability to compete effectively; PepsiCo's ability to attract, develop and maintain a highly skilled and diverse workforce; water scarcity; changes in the retail landscape or in sales to any key customer; disruption of PepsiCo's supply chain; political or social conditions in the markets where PepsiCo's products are made, manufactured, distributed or sold; PepsiCo's ability to grow its business in developing and emerging markets; changes in economic conditions in the countries in which PepsiCo operates; future cyber incidents and other disruptions; failure to successfully complete or manage strategic transactions; PepsiCo's reliance on third-party service providers; climate change or measures to address climate change; strikes or work stoppages; failure to realize benefits from PepsiCo's productivity initiatives; deterioration in estimates and underlying assumptions regarding future performance that can result in an impairment charge; fluctuations or other changes in exchange rates; any downgrade or potential downgrade of PepsiCo's credit ratings; imposition or proposed imposition of new or increased taxes aimed at PepsiCo's products; imposition of limitations on the marketing or sale of PepsiCo's products; changes in laws and regulations related to the use or disposal of plastics or other packaging of PepsiCo's products; failure to comply with personal data protection and privacy laws; increase in income tax rates, changes in income tax laws or disagreements with tax authorities; failure to adequately protect PepsiCo's intellectual property rights or infringement on intellectual property rights of others; failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations; and potential liabilities and costs from litigation, claims, legal or regulatory proceedings, inquiries or investigations. 

For additional information on these and other factors that could cause PepsiCo's actual results to materially differ from those set forth herein, please see PepsiCo's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. PepsiCo undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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SOURCE PepsiCo, Inc.