PepsiCo Beverages North America Announces $15 Million Investment in Closed Loop Partners' Leadership Fund

PURCHASE, N.Y., Dec. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PepsiCo Beverages North America announced today a $15 million investment in Closed Loop Partners' Leadership Fund, a private equity fund that acquires and grows companies, including in the packaging value chain, to strengthen recycling infrastructure and build circular supply chains that keep materials out of landfills.

"The recycling landscape in America continues to be challenging, and as companies – including PepsiCo – set ambitious goals to use more recycled content in their packaging, there is more need than ever for partnerships and action to increase access to recycled material," said Jason Blake, Chief Sustainability Officer and SVP at PepsiCo Beverages North America. "Through PepsiCo Positive, our end-to-end strategic transformation agenda, sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. We are honored to expand our partnership with Closed Loop Partners through this investment to advocate for and advance the necessary work that is being done to transform the recycling system."

"Demand for recycled materials in packaging is growing at an unprecedented rate, signaling an opportunity for greater investment in the recycling infrastructure that keeps these commodities in play. At Closed Loop Partners, we are committed to strengthening the circular systems that make this possible," says Ron Gonen, Founder & CEO of Closed Loop Partners. "PepsiCo's investment in the Closed Loop Leadership Fund builds on its existing partnership with our firm, setting a clear path forward for the food and beverage industry to advance circular supply chains for packaging. We look forward to continuing our long-standing partnership with PepsiCo and the beverage industry in building a more waste-free world."

This investment reinforces PepsiCo's desire to create a world where packaging never becomes waste and the company's plans to increase recycling rates in the United States, while simultaneously unlocking access to incremental recycled plastic supply. It aims to help propel progress against PepsiCo's target to cut virgin plastic from non-renewable sources across our food and beverage portfolios by 50% by 2030. In the U.S., all Pepsi-branded products are expected to be converted to 100% rPET bottles by 2030, with Pepsi Zero Sugar beginning to be sold in 100% rPET bottles by 2022. As shared in the 2020 Sustainability Report, PepsiCo reported that 87% of its packaging is recyclable, compostable, or biodegradable and this investment with Closed Loop Partners' Leadership Fund will only help to drive even more collection of these valuable materials for use in our packaging. 

PepsiCo has a long history of partnering with Closed Loop Partners to make strides on material recovery and infrastructure advancements:

• In 2014, PepsiCo became a founding member of the Closed Loop Fund, now known as the Closed Loop Infrastructure Fund, which has provided investments that cities, counties, and businesses in the U.S. use to take the steps necessary to move recycling to the next level, including new trucks for pick-up/hauling and cutting-edge technology to make materials recovery facilities work more efficiently.
• Through American Beverage's Every Bottle Back Initiative, PepsiCo is an investor in the Closed Loop Partners' Beverage Fund, which seeks to improve the collection of the industry's valuable plastic bottles so they can be made into new bottles using rPET. This fund partners with other beverage companies, as well as nonprofits and NGOs like The Recycling Partnership and World Wildlife Fund to reduce their plastic footprints, improve recycling access, provide education to residents, and modernize recycling infrastructure in communities across the country.
• In 2021, PepsiCo became a founding partner of Closed Loop Partners' Composting Consortium, which brings together leading voices in the composting ecosystem in the United States to identify the best path forward to increase the recovery of compostable food packaging and drive toward circular outcomes.

About PepsiCo
PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $70 billion in net revenue in 2020, driven by a complementary food and beverage portfolio that includes Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker, Tropicana, and SodaStream. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including 23 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.

Guiding PepsiCo is our vision to Be the Global Leader in Convenient Foods and Beverages by Winning with Purpose. "Winning with Purpose" reflects our ambition to win sustainably in the marketplace and embed purpose into all aspects of our business strategy and brands. For more information, visit pepsico.com.

About the Closed Loop Leadership Fund at Closed Loop Partners
The Closed Loop Leadership Fund is Closed Loop Partners' private equity fund, focused on acquiring best-in-class circular business models that are fundamental to keeping plastics and packaging, food and organics, electronics and textiles out of landfills and within a circular system. Closed Loop Partners is a New York-based investment firm comprised of venture capital, growth equity, private equity, project-based finance and an innovation center focused on building the circular economy. The firm's business verticals build upon one another, bridging gaps and fostering synergies to scale the circular economy.

To learn about the Closed Loop Leadership Fund, visit Closed Loop Partners' website.

PepsiCo Cautionary Statement
This release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are generally identified through the inclusion of words such as "aim," "anticipate," "believe," "drive," "estimate," "expect," "goal," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "strategy," "target" and "will" or similar statements or variations of such terms and other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted in such statements, including future demand for PepsiCo's products; damage to PepsiCo's reputation or brand image; political or social conditions in the markets where PepsiCo's products are made, manufactured, distributed or sold; climate change or measures to address climate change; changes in laws and regulations related to the use or disposal of plastics or other packaging of PepsiCo's products; failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations; and potential liabilities and costs from litigation, claims, legal or regulatory proceedings, inquiries or investigations. For additional information on these and other factors that could cause PepsiCo's actual results to materially differ from those set forth herein, please see PepsiCo's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. PepsiCo undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contact: mediarelations@pepsico.com

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SOURCE PepsiCo, Inc.