For decades, PepsiCo UK’s snacks empire has relied on an unspoken assumption that Walkers, Doritos and Sensations are simply too big to fail. Too familiar to be challenged. Too embedded in British shopping habits to be questioned.
But on the ground, in the convenience sector that has long powered its impulse sales, that assumption is slowly unravelling.
Across the country, independent retailers are voicing the same frustration. PepsiCo UK, they say, no longer listens. No longer understands the economics of convenience retail. They say PepsiCo UK is not supporting them as it should.
Retailers argue that apart from sporadic in-store activations in a handful of locations, PepsiCo UK appears to be ignoring the wider needs of the convenience market.
The axing of Walkers’ van sales teams in August last year marked the end of an era for in-store support. Field rep visits have become increasingly rare.
In the words of one of the leading multisite award-winning Costcutter retailers, “PepsiCo UK lately seems reluctant to engage with the convenience market. We now hardly see their rep and when we do, it is more about tick-boxing and less about trying to listen to what we have to say.”
Another convenience retailer based in the Northeast, again on the condition of anonymity, told Asian Trader, “No one from the company comes to my store anymore. I have not seen a PepsiCo UK rep since a long time. We get visits from other reps but not from PepsiCo. I really wonder why!”
A leading Derbyshire-based retailer, who has sat on the advisory boards of several brands in the past, is blunt in his views when it comes to PepsiCo UK.
He shared, “The convenience channel does not get genuine support from PepsiCo UK. Whatever they are doing lately, they are doing it only to get some fancy pictures from social media and box-ticking PR exercise which brings no real value to the sector.”
PepsiCo’s public relations agency, Cirkle has come up with “Retailer Inner Cirkle”, some selected retailers that it uses on social media to populate in-store “activations”, calling them “influencers” – except that it seems like the vast majority of indies looking on remain unimpressed by such theatrics.
“The activations and free stuff given to a handful of retailers cannot be counted as a support to the wider convenience sector. Since Walkers still has a strong brand value, the company is taking us convenience retailers for a ride and totally dismissing our role in their sales," the retailer added.
Another leading Peterborough-based retailer echoed the sentiment by saying that the level of support from PepsiCo UKfield team has definitely reduced.
“Historically, I had a very good experience with PepsiCo through a field rep who used to visit regularly. Those visits added real value, good availability, deals and a proper understanding of what would actually work in store. That kind of face-to-face engagement made a big difference.
“More recently though the level of support has definitely reduced. Field coverage feels much thinner, areas seem larger and regular visits have dropped off. As a result, engagement feels more distant and transactional,” the retailer told Asian Trader.
The most troubling aspect of PepsiCo UK’s current action is not a single bad year or a soft patch in demand. The brands might be performing well, but they are clearly not performing for the convenience channel, according to the feedback Asian Trader has received.
Relegating convenience
Instead, it is the growing perception that the company seems to have deprioritised the UK convenience channel, a sector worth £48.8bn in 2025 that serves as the primary battleground for impulse snack purchases.
While most retailers Asian Trader spoke to requested anonymity, Glasgow-based pioneer retailer Shahid (Mo) Razzaq was more vocal and unabashed in his views.
“It seems like Walkers do not have enough staff in the sales force. We are looking at other brands now, like Golden Wonder, doing some great stuff which in turn helps us to push the sales.
“As a retailer, I will be looking for opportunities to maximise my profit and which brands can help me do that. Walkers does not fall into that,” Razzaq said.
“I think companies like PepsiCo UK are more into saving their money rather than investing in the convenience sector. They seem to lack imagination. They seem to lack that effort and work to actually understand the sector and go around in the country to reach out to small convenience stores doing hard work for them.
“They are not getting the complete picture. I am a bit disappointed because I think they can do a lot more than going back to the same retailers over and over again just for social media pictures,” he said.
Going by the retailers’ views, it seems that the convenience sector is no longer a priority for PepsiCo UK, where careful building of relationships with retailers – all retailers and not only a select few – should be an integral part of the supplier relationship, along with recognising achievement and rewarding retailer success.
The same attitude of indifference to indies is reflected in the pricing structure for the sector as well.
Wholesalers are alarmed at real disproportionate price variances between channels, with price-marked packs in some cases out of line, making convenience stores look expensive in a value-driven sector.
The same product is on average 15 per cent more expensive in symbol or independent stores, with convenience prices now 8.4 per cent higher than the same time last year. At times when families are choosing between eating and heating, that premium becomes untenable.
Not happy
Even consumers are not very happy with Walkers.
In fact, the brand has become a textbook example of shrinkflation – multipacks reduced from 24 to 20 bags, individual packs quietly (and in stages) trimmed from 35g to 32.5g, and recipe changes such as replacing sunflower oil with cheaper rapeseed oil, all while prices held firm or rose.
Online backlash has been fierce, with shoppers accusing the biggest brand and most able to absorb the cost increases, to be “cheaped-out” on consumers despite them also being the most expensive mainstream brand.
One Reddit user comments, “Walkers have always been a rip-off, but they've been even worse since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine was one of the biggest producers of sunflower oil in the world and so the war hit supply and raised the price of the oil.
“All of the crisps I eat from other manufacturers are all still using only sunflower oil. Walkers, being the biggest brand and most able to absorb the cost increases, seem to be the only crisp maker that cheaped-out on us, despite them also being the most expensive mainstream brand!”
The PepsiCo UK team deserves credit for innovation, however. The Extra Flamin' Hot range and Doritos Dinamita convenience exclusive demonstrated awareness of consumer trends. The company also invested £58 million in its Leicester facility in 2023 and £13 million in Coventry for Doritos production.
The company also makes substantial above-the-line marketing investments in TV, digital and OOD advertising that drives footfall to convenience stores. Major campaigns around sporting events, particularly football, create significant impulse purchase opportunities but it is not convenience-specific.
In contrast, KP Snacks has developed a "Convenience First" approach, recognising that convenience retailers require differential support compared to the multiples.
The company provides bespoke fixture solutions and planograms designed for smaller footprints, ensuring smaller convenience retailers can maximise their limited shelf space. Retailers approve.
Wake-up call
According to TWC’s Tom Fender, the snacks category on the whole is on the back foot with "MAT sales to 30 November 2025 for wholesaler-supplied unaffiliated and symbol convenience stores within TWC’s.
SmartView Convenience platform show[ing] overall sales are -5 per cent value and volume. Crisp, Snacks and Nuts sales are very much in line with overall sales value performance at -4.69 per cent but with a sharper decline on retail units sold at -8.17 per cent, which suggests stronger pricing in an attempt to counter the market trend for declining sales.”
He revealed that of the top 10 crisps and snacks suppliers, only three are reporting growth, but that brand shows a more nuanced picture: “In a declining category, the brands declining the least can still increase their value share," he stated.
PepsiCo UK appears to be doing this, but storeowners we reached out to say they feel it is at the expense of independent retailers, with price rises, the “value substitution” of oils, and shrinkflation.
And the uncomfortable question for independent retailers is obvious: if prices went up so sharply, did margins rise for convenience stores, too?
Is PepsiCo UK losing interest in the convenience channel and betting on the multiples only, in contrast to new and niche snack brands such as Fairfields Farm and Burts, as well as stalwarts such as KP Snacks and Golden Wonder and Pringles?
According to Nic Storey, Senior Sales Director at PepsiCo UK, the convenience channel continues to be the key focus for PepsiCo.
“We’re proud of the well-established and trusted relationships our field sales team has built and continues to maintain.
“We have recently developed and launched our digital pre-sell tool, whereby our field team can help retailers order exactly what they need, through their preferred delivery service.
“Our Sales Development Reps are supporting thousands of retailers build category sales and our partnership with shopt ensures that we are offering digital support more widely as well, rewarding stores who are getting behind our recommended core range,” Storey told Asian Trader.
While Storey stressed that the field sales team is proactive in supporting the convenience retailers, what is actually happening on the ground as seen through views gathered by Asian Trader (see above) paints a different picture altogether.
In the words of Razzaq, what PepsiCo is doing amounts to “nothing but lazy marketing”.
“They're only London centric as well which is such a bad idea. They need to cover all regions which will give them exposure to different demographics.
“This so-called ‘retailer influencer marketing’ should be spread more evenly so that even the companies get the right feedback from the wider sector rather from the same set of retailers.
“If such companies are not changing their way of working soon, they won’t be getting proper advice and honest feedback from the grassroots level and will continue to work in delusion.
“There are thousands of retailers out in the country who are desperate to push their business forward and are looking for ideas and help from these companies, but sadly these companies and their PRs are turning out to be not very good in providing help and support that is actually needed,” Razzaq pointed out. “I think they need to have a kind of a wakeup call.”
It is clear that for retailers, support means way much more than what PepsiCo UK been doing lately.
Genuine support to the convenience channel starts with fair pricing structures that acknowledge convenience retailers' operating realities, margin protection so that convenience retailers can compete with bigger multiples without sacrificing profitability, distribution gap closure and extending genuine support to the wider convenience sector and not just to a handful stores.
Convenience retailers have already delivered their verdict. The only question now is whether PepsiCo UK is prepared to acknowledge the harsh truth.
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Asian Trader operates in the interests of independent retailers and the only reason of its existence is to help improve their business and livelihood. To that end, Asian Trader will hold suppliers and anybody else to account when readers tell us they are unhappy with the way they are being treated.
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