Roger Enrico, Pepsi CEO who closed gap with Coke, dies at 71

Roger Enrico, who as chief executive of PepsiCo from 1996 to 2001 used a sponsorship deal with Michael Jackson to nearly pull even in the marketplace with Coca-Cola, died June 1 in the Cayman Islands. He was 71.

He died while snorkeling, the Cayman Compass reported, citing local police. Mr. Enrico had a home in the Caymans, a British territory in the Caribbean.

Mr. Enrico was chairman of DreamWorks Animation SKG from its inception as a public company in 2004 to 2012. But he had been with PepsiCo for most of his career.

Before leading the Purchase, N.Y.-based company as CEO, Mr. Enrico was head of its Pepsi-Cola USA division and oversaw a marketing strategy that positioned the soft-drink maker as “the choice of a new generation.”

The campaign, beginning in 1983, helped spook Coca-Cola into changing the formula for its market-leading product. The 1985 introduction of “New Coke” is often cited as one of the great marketing blunders of all time.

“After 87 years of going at it eyeball to eyeball, the other guy just blinked,” Mr. Enrico wrote at the time in a memo to his staff.

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He and Jesse Kornbluth co-authored the book “The Other Guy Blinked: How Pepsi Won the Cola Wars” (1986).

Mr. Enrico got his start in 1971 as an associate brand manager for Funyuns, an onion-flavored snack, in the company’s Frito-Lay division, according to a 1998 article in Beverage World.

At different times, he led each of PepsiCo’s three major units, Frito-Lay, Pepsi-Cola and restaurants, which included Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC. As head of Pepsi-Cola, he persuaded Burger King to switch from selling Coke to Pepsi in its fast-food chain. By 1985, Pepsi led Coke in retail sales; Coke held on to its lead with restaurant and vending-machine distribution included.

As PepsiCo CEO, Mr. Enrico restructured the company to focus on beverages and snacks. He spun off the restaurants into Tricon Global Restaurants, now called Yum Brands, and engineered a spinoff of the bottling business in 1999.

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Mr. Enrico acquired a fruit-drink maker, Tropicana Products, from Seagram. In 2000, he announced the $13.4 billion acquisition of Quaker Oats, producer of Gatorade, which was completed the following year.

Mr. Enrico was born in Chisholm, Minn., on Nov. 11, 1944. As a teenager, he worked at an independent bottling plant washing bottles and affixing labels. Later he sold pots and pans door to door.

In 1965, he received a bachelor’s degree in finance from Babson College in Wellesley, Mass. He worked at General Mills and served in the Navy before joining PepsiCo.

Survivors include his wife, the former Rosemary Margo, and their son, Aaron.

— Bloomberg News

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