Mountain Dew Kickstart generated more than $100m in first year, says PepsiCo

The carbonated beverage, which is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, ace K and sucralose, and launched in February, has 5% juice, vitamins, and 92mg of caffeine in a 16oz can. Labeled as a “flavored sparkling juice beverage from concentrate​”, it comes in two flavors: Orange Citrus and Fruit Punch and has 80 calories per can.

Speaking at the Barclays Back to School conference in Boston, PepsiCo president Zein Abdalla said: “Looking at scalable innovation platforms, Kickstart is a great example of this. ​

“We launched Kickstart Your Day, a morning proposition for Millennials who would rather drink a Mountain Dew proposition than coffee, and this has proved incredibly successful building a greater than $100 million business in its first year of launch. ​

“But again, thinking about that as a platform, Kickstart Your Day can easily transform into Kickstart Your Night and that will follow, leveraging again a lot of the same technology but targeting a different consumer demand space.”​

Beverages globally is a 5% growth category​

While volumes of carbonated beverages and cola in particular have been declining in North America, he said, “beverages globally is a 5% growth category”.​

He added: “We are the largest supplier to the US retail trade in food and beverages and we have nine out of the 40 top trademarks. ​

“So when a retailer is looking for growth in the US PepsiCo is a very logical partner for them to plan their activity and to coordinate their activity with.”​

China is going to be the single largest driver of growth for any FMCG company going forward​

Meanwhile, PepsiCo also occupies “the number one position in other strategic geographies like China”, ​he noted.

“Franchising in China and developing our partnership with the Tingyi Company ​[makes] us the number one food and beverage company in that geography by some order of magnitude. ​

“And China as you all know is going to be the single largest driver of growth for any FMCG company going forward.”​

Click here​ to read about PepsiCo's exploration of Chinese herbal ingredients for more 'natural' energy drinks.

Click here​ and here​ to read the latest Nielsen data on US retail sales of carbonated soft drinks and other beverages.