MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Donald Kendall, who headed the US food and beverage corporation PepsiCo in 1971-1986, has died at the age of 99, the company announced in a tribute statement to its former CEO.
The consumer giant added that although Kendall retired from his post in 1986, he continued to participate in the management of the corporation, having dedicated a total of 39 years to it.
The former CEO enjoyed the friendship of US President Richard Nixon, who made Pepsi “the first U.S. consumer product to be made and sold in Russia” after attending the American National Exhibition in Moscow in 1959 and having then-USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev taste the beverage.
The PepsiCo company was created in 1965 with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company and Frito-Lay, Inc. Since then, it has expanded its products range from the Pepsi beverage to a variety of other food and beverage brands, the largest of which is Tropicana Products.
The company expanded its production to the Soviet Union first in 1959, and then negotiated a cola monopoly in 1972.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
