June 10, 2005
By KEN TARBOUS
STAFF WRITER
RUTGERS: Get ready for another Pepsi generation.
The Rutgers University board of governors agreed yesterday to a 10-year, $17 million deal to sell exclusive beverage rights to the Pepsi Bottling Group, ending more than a decade of Coke domination at the state-run school.
"It's good for the university," Gregory S. Blimling, vice president for student affairs, said yesterday after the vote. "It will provide the university a partnership with an excellent company, provide a variety of beverages to the students, and also provide the university with a stream of revenue to support a number of activities and programs for students."
Blimling chaired the university's Exclusive Beverage Committee that reviewed bids by Pepsi Bottling, Coca-Cola Enterprises and Red Bull, whose limited offerings didn't meet the school's needs.
"Pepsi's proposal was simply stronger financially for the institution," he said.
Rutgers plans to use the revenues for a variety of educational and student activities such as scholarships for female athletes, academic and co-curricular programs, and faculty and staff initiatives.
Pepsi Bottling has also committed to hiring more Rutgers students and graduates as part of the agreement, Blimling said.
In response to a reporter's question, Blimling joked that Rutgers had not asked Pepsi to change the color of its trademark blue packaging to match the Rutgers Scarlet Knights' colors.
The deal covers Rutgers' Camden, Newark and New Brunswick/Piscataway campuses.
Somers, N.Y.-based Pepsi Bottling will be the exclusive supplier of soft drinks and other beverages for dining halls, vending machines and athletic-center and student-center concessions until May 2015. Negotiations on the contract's final details are likely to take a few months to complete, the parties said.
"We're very excited about this," Pepsi Bottling spokeswoman Amy Polacko said yesterday. "We're all about choice."
Pepsi Bottling supplies Pepsi-Cola, Diet Pepsi, Sierra Mist, Lipton iced teas, Tropicana and Dole juices and drinks, Aquafina bottled water, Gatorade, Starbucks Frappuccino and SoBe drinks.
Products shipped to the New Brunswick/Piscataway and Newark campuses will come out of the Pepsi distribution center on New Brunswick Avenue in Piscataway. Shipments to Camden will be made by a Pennsauken-based Pepsi bottling firm, Polacko said.
Pepsi Bottling sells its goods at Seton Hall University, Monmouth University and other New Jersey schools. The company also has deals with Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority to provide beverages at the Meadowlands Sports Complex and Monmouth Park Racetrack, Polacko said.
Pepsi Bottling will establish a new scholarship for Rutgers students and work with the university on health and wellness initiatives, she added.
Rutgers' 10-year, $10 million agreement with the Coca-Cola Co. expired last year but was extended through May to give the school time to transition to a new vendor.
That Coke deal was the subject of student protests over alleged human-rights abuses at Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia.
The Pepsi choice had nothing to do with those objections, Blimling said, because Pepsi
Bottling made the financially superior offer.
"It was not a factor in us choosing Pepsi over Coke," Blimling said. "It was a serious issue and we did discuss it, but we just never had to make a decision on it."
Kerry Kerr, a spokesman with the Coca-Cola Co. in Atlanta, agreed the student protests did not influence the choice of a new beverage provider.
"We are continuing to work with the students to try to address their concerns and answer their questions,"Kerr said.
