Pepsi Takes a ‘Hard Hit’ in Egypt

The merchants explained to “Cairo 24” that the disappearance of “Lipton Ice Tea” drinks came after several months of boycott campaigns against companies that support Israel, including Pepsi and Lipton, which led the boycott scene.

E-commerce platforms for soft drinks and food products showed that Lipton Ice Tea drinks have completely disappeared for some time.

Traders in other commercial chains said that Lipton Ice Tea was very popular during the summer and had been popular over the past years, before it disappeared from the market in the past few months.

Hazem El-Menoufi, head of the Foodstuffs Division at the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement to Cairo 24 that Lipton Ice Tea has actually disappeared from the market for some time.

Sources in soft drink companies previously told Cairo 24 that the boycott campaigns have hit companies’ revenues and reduced profits by no less than 70% over the past months.

PepsiCo and Coca-Cola had annual sales of about 30 billion pounds before last year’s price hike, according to traders’ estimates.

The two companies have resorted to raising the prices of their products several times, with increases approaching 150% over the past 24 months, to compensate for losses resulting from boycott campaigns, inflation, and the liberalization of the pound’s exchange rate against the dollar from 15 pounds in 2022 to 49 pounds on Tuesday.

Lipton Tea Company also suffered a sharp decline in its sales since last October, against the backdrop of Egyptian and Arab boycott campaigns due to the company’s foreign origin, in support of Gaza and Palestine, which caused the company huge losses, according to estimates by traders in the Egyptian market.

Source: “Cairo 24”