THE CLIENT
PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Purchase, New York. PepsiCo was formed in 1965 with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company and Frito-Lay, Inc. PepsiCo has since expanded from its namesake product Pepsi to a broader range of food and beverage brands, the largest of which have included an acquisition of Tropicana Products in 1998 and the Quaker Oats Company in 2001, which added the Gatorade brand to its portfolio.
THE CHALLENGE
The UK finance function (including Tax) of PepsiCo are predominantly based in Reading. We were asked by PepsiCo to help them recruit a specialist UK Tax Manager as the current incumbent was leaving the business. They had spoken to a global generalist recruiter but had not received CV’s specifically for Tax and so they wanted to use a specialist Tax recruiter in order to find their replacement.
OUR SOLUTION
Pro-Tax took an initial briefing call with HR prior to the start of the recruitment process to ensure the best possible understanding of the role. As it is important to get a clear understanding of the softer skills required, and the needs and visions of the existing finance management team in the UK as well as the wider tax team, it would have been preferential to arrange a meeting however diary conflicts made this difficult. Pro-Tax worked closely with not only the line Manager but also the HR team in order to ensure they were up to date with our internal processes at all stages of the recruitment process. We helped to provide advice on the tax market as initially, preferred candidates would have been from an existing industry background, however, with our knowledge and understanding of the PepsiCo culture Pro-Tax discussed the advantages of looking at candidates from practice who would potentially fit the business as well and grow into the role. We provided an initial shortlist of 5 CVs from both practice and industry backgrounds, PepsiCo took 3 of these candidates to 1st interview and then a first 2 candidates to 2nd interview. Both candidates were very different and had experience for the job as well as the right personality and culture for the business.
THE RESULT
Once the preferred candidate was established, constant communication was kept between all parties to ensure the offer process would accelerate as smoothly as possible. We advised the candidate upon resigning and we were even able to negotiate a start date that was sooner rather than later. All parties were happy with the outcome and we hope that we can continue to do business with PepsiCo more often across finance, tax and legal.
