Carlsberg has secured the rights to produce, sell and distribute PepsiCo beverages in Denmark from 1 January 2029, in a move that reshapes the country’s soft drinks market and deals a major blow to rival Royal Unibrew. The agreement also covers Finland and the Baltic states, while Carlsberg’s current bottling deals with The Coca-Cola Company in Denmark and Finland will expire at the end of 2028.
Pepsi rights move from Royal Unibrew to Carlsberg
Carlsberg said on 21 April that it is expanding its strategic partnership with PepsiCo and will become the PepsiCo bottler in Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from the start of 2029. The Copenhagen-based group already bottles PepsiCo products in Sweden and Norway, and said the new deal will make it the sole PepsiCo bottler across the Nordics and Baltics.
For Royal Unibrew, the decision marks the end of a long-running partnership. The company said its PepsiCo licence agreements for Denmark, including German border trade, Finland and the Baltic states will expire at the end of 2028 after the two sides failed to reach a new agreement.
Royal Unibrew shares post a record fall after Pepsi loss
Investors reacted immediately. Royal Unibrew shares fell by nearly a quarter on Tuesday, in what Danish media described as the company’s biggest one-day stock market drop on record since its 1998 listing.
The scale of the reaction reflects how important the PepsiCo business has been for Royal Unibrew. According to the company, the affected PepsiCo operations currently account for around 13% of group net revenue. Danish media and market commentators have estimated that this corresponds to roughly DKK 2 billion (€268 million) in annual sales.
Reuters reported that analysts at Citi expect the lost contract to trigger earnings downgrades, while Royal Unibrew said the end of the partnership will reduce both revenue and volumes from 2029.
Carlsberg drops Coca-Cola in Denmark and Finland
The deal is also significant because it confirms a major portfolio switch by Carlsberg. The brewer said its current bottling agreements with The Coca-Cola Company in Denmark and Finland will run until their expiry on 31 December 2028.
That means Carlsberg is not simply adding Pepsi. It is replacing Coca-Cola with Pepsi in two important Nordic markets. The future Danish distribution setup for Coca-Cola has not yet been announced.
This shift may have wider implications than a standard licensing change. It strengthens Carlsberg’s role as PepsiCo’s preferred multi-country partner in Europe, while opening a gap in the Danish market that another bottler will need to fill if Coca-Cola wants to maintain its current distribution model.
Why PepsiCo is betting on fewer, larger partners
The move fits a broader consolidation strategy already visible in the sector. After acquiring Britvic for DKK 29 billion (€3.89 billion) in 2023, Carlsberg signalled that it wanted to deepen its cooperation with PepsiCo in more markets.
Carlsberg now says it will hold PepsiCo bottling appointments in 14 markets across Europe and Asia once the new agreement takes effect. For PepsiCo, that offers a more standardised structure across several countries. For Carlsberg, it adds scale in soft drinks at a time when large brewers are increasingly looking beyond beer for growth.
Royal Unibrew bets on local brands and new partnerships
Royal Unibrew said its multi-beverage strategy remains unchanged and argued that its own brands have recently outperformed the wider soft drinks market. The company pointed to brands such as Faxe Kondi, Jaffa and Novelle as examples of labels expected to gain further momentum.
The group also said that losing PepsiCo will free up production capacity and lower capital expenditure, while the margin profile of its own brands is structurally higher than that of licensed brands. At the same time, it warned of transition costs of around DKK 300 million (€40.2 million) from 2029 as it accelerates its own-brand strategy and manages the end of the PepsiCo partnership.
In practice, the challenge for Royal Unibrew is not only replacing lost volume. It is also proving that a stronger focus on local brands and possible new agreements can offset the loss of one of the best-known global soft drink portfolios in the region.
What the cola reshuffle means for Denmark’s beverage market
The agreement does not change what Danish consumers will see on shelves immediately. The transition will only take effect in 2029. But the announcement has already revealed how sharply the balance of power is shifting inside the Nordic beverage industry.
For Carlsberg, the deal expands a long-term strategy to build a broader non-alcoholic drinks business around strong international partnerships. For Royal Unibrew, it is one of the most serious commercial setbacks in recent years, even if the company insists it can recover through stronger own-brand growth.
The remaining open question is Coca-Cola. If Pepsi has now found a larger Nordic platform through Carlsberg, Coca-Cola will also need a new Danish solution before the end of 2028. That next decision could determine whether this is only a licensing reshuffle or the start of a deeper realignment in Denmark’s carbonated drinks market.
