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StocksMedium•22 October 2026•
3 min read

PepsiCo Renews Taco Bell Beverage Partnership for 11 Years Through 2036

Key Facts

1PepsiCo renewed its U.S. beverage partnership with Taco Bell for 11 years through 2036.
2Taco Bell targets $5 billion in beverage sales by 2030.
3PepsiCo's North American beverage volumes fell 2% year on year in the third quarter.
4KFC expects Coca-Cola products to be available at its U.S. restaurants by spring 2027.

PepsiCo has renewed its partnership to supply beverages to Taco Bell in the United States for 11 years, in an agreement running through 2036, Investing.com reported. The renewal retains PepsiCo as the U.S. restaurant chain's beverage partner, alongside continued cooperation in selected international markets. Those markets include Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Thailand, according to the same report. The agreement comes amid weakness in PepsiCo's North American beverage business, where third-quarter volumes fell from the same period a year earlier. Reuters said in its coverage of the company's results that "third-quarter food volumes were flat, while beverage volumes fell 2% from a year earlier."

For Taco Bell, the beverage business is tied to a stated goal of reaching $5 billion in sales by 2030, according to the chain's official website. The company uses its "Live Más Café" locations to test new drinks as part of that business. These cafés allow customers to try exclusive beverages that Taco Bell described as "bold and unexpected." The trials precede the potential addition of the products to restaurant menus across the United States, according to the company's description of the cafés' role. The chain's beverage plan thus combines a sales target set for the end of the decade with product testing that could bring drinks from the cafés to its U.S. restaurant menus.

The corporate relationship between PepsiCo and Taco Bell dates to June 1978, when the beverage company acquired the restaurant chain, according to PepsiCo's official shareholder services page. That relationship changed in 1997, when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant operations. The spinoff included Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, with the businesses brought together under Tricon Global Restaurants. Tricon later became Yum Brands, according to the history presented by PepsiCo. The renewal of the U.S. beverage partnership extends a relationship that began with an acquisition and continued commercially after the restaurant operations were spun off.

In a separate competitive development, the renewal of the Taco Bell agreement was preceded by KFC's selection of Coca-Cola as the beverage partner for its U.S. stores, according to Reuters. That choice shifts beverage supply at those restaurants from PepsiCo to its rival. The U.S. decision puts KFC on a different path from Taco Bell, which extended its cooperation with PepsiCo in the same market. Implementation of KFC's switch is scheduled for a later date than the selection of its new partner. The chain expects Coca-Cola products to be available at its U.S. restaurants by spring 2027, Reuters reported.