The fourth-largest beverage brand in the U.S. market, Gatorade, is launching an energy drink, which is cool, but I’m more interested in what the Fast Twitch product announcement means to entire sports nutrition portfolio strategy at the beverage CPG giant PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP). That being said, I do run through all the Gatorade Fast Twitch product details (e.g. formula and packaging), along with where the energy drink will be merchandised in large retailers. With it's lack of carbonation, Gatorade Fast Twitch potentially offers the growing $16 billion U.S. energy drink market (and large retailer energy sets) a potential strong level of incrementality. Gatorade Fast Twitch will not be the next billion-dollar energy drink brand, but it does fill a consumer pain point for those that use performance energy drinks before a workout or sports activity. Additionally, I cover the aggressive innovation strategy that PepsiCo has taken with Gatorade as of late including the launch of Gatorade Zero, Gatorade Zero with Protein, Gatorlyte, Gatorade Fit, and Fast Twitch. After the early 2019 acquisition of CytoSport (aka Muscle Milk), PepsiCo has been relatively inactive and I thought it would end up being just another sad story of a large CPG company buying a sports and active nutrition legacy brand and letting it fizzle away...but, then I got the heads up from someone that noticed PepsiCo began listing Muscle Milk and Evolve products on the Gatorade website. In the latter part of the content, I explore if PepsiCo is possibly "merging" its sports nutrition brands together? If so, what does that mean long-term? Finally, I cover the competitive landscape and categorical shifts of the U.S. sports drink market that Gatorade still owns about a 70 percent share.
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