New York, December 30: Pepsico Chief Indra Nooyi is facing flak as company’s shares have reportedly fallen by 7 percent while Coke’s share surged by 28 percent since she took over, even as the Indian-born businesswoman was named in the Financial Times list of ’50 People Who Shaped the Decade’.
“I think it is hard to give Indra much better than a C-plus as a CEO,” a shareholder was quoted as saying by the New York Post.
Another shareholder said that 2010 would be a critical time for Nooyi, who took over in 2006.
“I think 2010 is a pivotal year for PepsiCo and Indra.”
“Indra Nooyi has had a tough three years since becoming CEO,” said a PepsiCo shareholder.
Several strategy changes over the past three years have left have turned off customers and eroded sales for PepsiCo’s core products Pepsi, Gatorade and Tropicana, according to the New York daily .
For instance, Gatorade’s US market share among sports drinks, meanwhile, has fallen to 74.9 percent from 79.3 three years ago.
The falls in sales is attributed partly to the company replacing Gatorade’s name on its bottles with the letter “G”. PepsiCo also saw a drop in sales when it replaced Tropicana’s classic logo, an orange with a straw stuck.
The company brought the logo back after suffering losses.
Pepsi’s US cola share has also slipped to 22.4 percent from 23.3 percent.
Earlier this year, a Yale graduate, Nooyi topped Financial Times list of top 50 women in world business. Fortune magazine also named Nooyi to the top spot on its list of 50 Most Powerful Women in Business for the fourth year straight.
-PTI