The soft drinks group Pepsico has created a joint venture with the consumer goods giant Unilever to expand the marketing and distribution of Unilever's range of Lipton ready-to-drink teas

Food & Drink Weekly, Oct 20, 2003

The soft drinks group Pepsico has created a joint venture with the consumer goods giant Unilever to expand the marketing and distribution of Unilever's range of Lipton ready-to-drink teas. The 50-50 joint venture--Pepsi Lipton International--builds on the Pepsi-Lipton Tea Partnership, which was formed in 1991 and remains the leading ready-to-drink tea player in the United States.

The companies said that the new JV will target "white space" markets where Lipton currently is unavailable yet PepsiCo has a solid presence. Markets with existing Lipton business--Brazil, Spain, Greece, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Albania, Romania, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Australia, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi and the six Gulf States--also will be included in the coming months.