Gatorade might cost more soon due to supply chain shortages, PepsiCo says
Shoppers and retailers across the U.S. may have noticed that it’s been a little harder to find Gatorade sports drinks on store shelves lately.
On Tuesday, Gatorade’s parent company, PepsiCo, said that the company is struggling with supply chain challenges, a problem that’s plagued the production and transportation of countless other goods — from toilet paper to cars to at-home COVID tests — intermittently throughout the pandemic.
The company also said that it anticipates a price increase next year to compensate for the rising costs of raw materials, Reuters reported.
In addition to a shortage of cans and bottles for Gatorade and other PepsiCo beverages, the company has also had to contend with a shortage of truck drivers to transport the products to stores, according to Reuters.
The issues are particularly magnified in the wake of growing demand for beverages as pandemic-related restrictions on restaurants and theaters have been lifted, Reuters reported. And of course, it’s football season and crowds are packing high school, college and NFL stadiums.
Stores and customers nationwide have felt the pinch.
Tim Metcalfe, co-owner of Metcalfe’s Market in Wisconsin, told TMJ4 in Milwaukee that his store is struggling with supplying products like Gatorade, cat food and Capri Sun, likely because of supply chain issues experienced toward the beginning of the pandemic.
“The supply chain got behind and we were kind of hopeful it would catch up, but unfortunately it just hasn’t,” Metcalfe said.
In San Diego, shopper Katie Ellis told ABC 10 that she felt something she needed was missing from grocery shelves every week. In late September, that turned out to be small, single-serving bottled drinks.
“Gatorade, and a lot of different juices, are missing today,” Ellis said.
In August, Amber Edwards, a mother of two from Huntsville, Alabama, told The Wall Street Journal that she looked for large packs of cherry Gatorade at multiple supermarkets in her area with no luck, only finding small packages of other flavors.
“The shelves are empty, and online they are always out of stock,” Edwards said, though she had been buying whatever she could find, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Despite the issues, the company’s sales have remained strong.
Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston told Reuters that, in spite of the shortages of materials and available truck drivers, he does not anticipate a shortage of PepsiCo products in supermarkets in the fourth quarter of the year.
In a third-quarter earnings report, PepsiCo said its net revenue rose by 11.6% year-over-year to $20.19 billion. That number exceeded Wall Street estimates of $19.39 billion, Front Office Sports reported.
PepsiCo remains a giant in the food and drink industry, with Gatorade and other products receiving significant promotion from prominent sports leagues.
Gatorade, which was invented by a team of scientists at the University of Florida in 1965, dominates the sports drink market, holding a 67.7% market share as of last year, according to Euromonitor. Earlier this year, the NBA signed onto a multi-year extension of its partnership with PepsiCo, with Mountain Dew and Ruffles serving as the official soft drink and chip of the NBA, WNBA and G-League, Forbes reported.
Additionally, Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James announced his own multi-year deal with PepsiCo earlier this year, becoming the face of the energy drink Mountain Dew Rise and leaving Coca-Cola after 17 years, where he previously endorsed competing products Sprite and Powerade, Front Office Sports reported.
This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 6:24 PM with the headline "Gatorade might cost more soon due to supply chain shortages, PepsiCo says."