Winning a major distributorship for bottled water, PepsiCo (PEP -0.66%) and its subsidiary, PepsiCo Beverages Canada, inked a deal today to be the exclusive distributor for evian brand bottled water in Canada. Danone Waters of America, or DWA, a subsidiary of multinational food processing giant Danone, is the other party involved in the pact.
PepsiCo will begin its Canadian sales and distribution on Jan. 1, 2021, a move its Canadian president Richard Glover says is a strong fit for its "overall hydration strategy and enables us to use our distribution networks and sales capabilities to accelerate the growth of evian in the Canadian marketplace." Pepsi also points out the brand is the leading seller in the country.
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Henri de L'Epine, CEO of Danone Waters of America, weighed in on the advantages PepsiCo was bringing to the agreement, again focusing on its "extensive Direct-to-Store Delivery system, strong selling capabilities," and "complementary brand portfolio."
The move comes as PepsiCo experiments with products such as its L-theanine-infused anti-insomnia "DriftWell" enhanced canned water. Following long-term trends, and under pressure from the coronavirus outbreak, multiple soda companies have been revamping their product lines this year. The Coca-Cola Company is planning to ax roughly 200 of its 400 brands as "zombie brands," which together generate just 2% of its revenue, according to Marketing Week, and plans to launch its Topo Chico branded hard seltzer in the U.S. next year.
PepsiCo may have picked a good time to get into the business of distributing evian north of the border. According to Statista research, Canadians are likely to buy $4.46 billion worth of bottled water annually by 2022, a climb of approximately 16.5% from the $3.83 billion sold in 2018.
