Business
From PepsiCo to Taco Bell, dirty soda is taking over
Utah-based drink chain Swig coined “dirty soda” back in 2010. Fifteen years later, the trend is fueling innovation everywhere from PepsiCo to McDonald’s, infusing the sluggish beverage category with new life.
“Dirty soda” drinks use pop as a base, followed by flavored syrups, cream or other ingredients. While Swig claims credit — and the trademark — for dirty soda, TikTok videos and the reality TV show “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” have helped the trend spread far and wide, outpacing even the soda chain’s speedy expansion.
Now, consumers can find it nearly everywhere, from grocery store aisles to fast-food chains.
In a few weeks, Pepsi plans to unveil two ready-to-drink dirty soda-inspired beverages at the National Association of Convenience Stores trade show in Chicago. The new drinks, the Dirty Dew and the Mug Floats Vanilla Howler, follow on the heels of the Pepsi Wild Cherry & Cream flavor, which hit shelves earlier this year.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for people like us, like PepsiCo, and for consumers to experience soda in a new way — and in some ways, an old way,” Pepsi Beverages North America Chief Marketing Officer Mark Kirkham told CNBC, comparing the rise of dirty soda to root beer floats and the soda shops of yore.
PepsiCo’s lineup of dirty soda-inspired drinks includes Pepsi Wild Cherry & Cream, Dirty Mountain Dew and Mug Floats Vanilla Howler.
Source: PepsiCo
Dirty soda has also drawn new interest beyond beverage players. According to Datassential, 2.7% of U.S. eateries offer a carbonated soft drink that includes cream or milk, up from 1.5% a decade ago.
Newcomers to the trend include TGI Fridays, which launched dirty soda as a limited-time menu item this summer that could be spiked with alcohol. McDonald’s is testing flavored sodas, like a “Sprite Lunar Splash,” at more than 500 locations after winding down its drinks-focused spinoff CosMc’s in June. Yum Brands’ Taco Bell has also been offering limited-time menu items, like a dirty Mountain Dew Baja Blast.
Swig sets a trend
These days, Swig has grown to more than 140 locations across 16 states. So far this year, its same-store sales have risen 8.2%, according to the privately held company. The Larry H. Miller Company, an investment firm founded by the former Utah Jazz owner, bought a majority stake in Swig in 2022 for an undisclosed sum.
“I think we’re doing for soda what Starbucks did for coffee,” Swig CEO Alex Dunn said.
As Swig has grown, so have the number of chains looking to emulate its success. Rival soda shops like Sodalicious, Fiiz and Cool Sips are also benefiting from the trend. Coffee shops, like Dutch Bros., have also added it to their menus. And now fast-food chains are hopping on the bandwagon.
“It validates that this is a category, and McDonald’s and Taco Bell wouldn’t be getting into it if it wasn’t something that had broad appeal that they could sell everywhere, in thousands of locations,” Dunn said. “It’s kind of flattering that we created a category that now everybody is copying.”
For restaurants, adding dirty soda to the menu is easier than it might sound.
“It’s a custom drink offering that, one, allows the brands to leverage something that they already have right there: their soda machine,” said Erica Holland-Toll, culinary director at The Culinary Edge, which advises restaurants on food and beverage innovation. “Two, it incorporates either a one-touch ingredient, or if they’re already open for breakfast, it’s quite likely that they’ve got a creamer in house.”
On the other hand, offering customizable coffee drinks is usually much more difficult — which has contributed to the struggles at Starbucks.
“The espresso world — that’s so much more complicated,” Holland-Toll said.
Dirty soda also has wide appeal. With less caffeine than coffee, consumers can drink it all day long. Plus, it’s “much more accessible” than some coffee house trends, like an espresso tonic, according to Holland-Toll. The bright colors of many dirty sodas also make them more attractive to consumers, who were likely introduced to the trend via a TikTok video.
But perhaps above all, dirty soda can help restaurants draw in customers who are otherwise feeling thrifty.
“It’s an affordable fun treat. You’re not going out and spending $30 or $50, right?” said Sally Lyons Watt, chief advisor of consumer goods and foodservice insights for Circana. “It’s something that people can walk away saying, ‘Wow, that was yummy’ or ‘I feel better because I just had that.'”
A pop for beverage companies
Swig drinks.
Courtesy: Swig
A “fun treat” for consumers is adding up for beverage companies, helping reverse the decades-long trend of declining soda consumption in the U.S.
As health concerns mount and the array of beverage options expands, Americans have been drinking less soda for roughly two decades. In 2004, soda consumption peaked at 15.3 billion gallons, according to Beverage Marketing; by 2024, that figure had slid to 11.87 billion gallons. But consumption of carbonated soft drinks has been ticking up in the last two years, with 2025 estimated to reach 11.88 billion gallons. The rise of dirty soda, plus the growing popularity of prebiotic sodas, has likely helped the segment halt its downward trajectory.
Over the years, iced coffee has been stealing what the beverage industry calls “share of throat” from soda. With dirty soda, consumers can marry their love of customizing a cold drink with the lower caffeine content and taste of soda.
“The carbonation makes it feel lighter in your mouth than coffee, for example,” Holland-Toll said.
Dirty soda has also been attracting younger consumers who previously didn’t drink much Pepsi or Dr Pepper. Swig’s core customer base is young women between the ages of 18 and 35, according to Dunn.
That’s true for Holly Galvin, a 31-year-old human resources professional based in Davenport, Iowa. She told CNBC that she rarely drank soda — until she saw dirty soda take the spotlight in the “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” last year. Now she makes her own dirty soda once or twice a week at home. With the onset of autumn, her go-to recipe these days uses Diet Dr Pepper as a base, with pumpkin spice creamer and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice on top.
Broadly, younger consumers are more inclined to seek out new drinks compared with older cohorts. Nearly three-quarters of Generation Z try a new beverage every month on average, according to Keurig Dr Pepper’s 2025 trend report.
Beverage companies say that they are seeing a broader halo effect for soda as a result of the trend.
“For us, it serves as a recruitment tool, bringing new users into the trademark,” said Katie Webb, vice president of innovation and transformation for Keurig Dr Pepper. “It really draws them all the way back to the base brand, which ends up being extremely impact for us long after.”
And just as craft cocktail culture led to the rise of canned cocktails, the popularity of dirty soda is leading beverage giants to cash in with ready-to-drink versions that capitalize on the trend. Dr Pepper Creamy Coconut was the company’s most successful limited-time carbonated soft drink to date, based on retail dollar sales, according to Webb. And Kirkham said Pepsi Wild Cherry & Cream has been one of the fastest-growing flavor segments for the company.
“Some trends start retail and move over to foodservice,” Circana’s Lyons Wyatt said. “This one was a foodservice trend moving into retail.”
With Pepsi Wild Cherry & Cream and next year’s launch of Dirty Dew and the Mug Floats Vanilla Howler, Kirkham expects that consumers will become even more creative with their concoctions.
“I think it’s actually giving [consumers] the chance to experiment even more and customize more,” he said. “Now you have a brand new base.”
Stock prices in London closed mixed on Monday, after a day of quiet trading at the start of another holiday-shortened week, as FTSE 250 firm International Personal Finance agreed to a £543 million takeover.
The FTSE 100 index closed down 4.15 points at 9,866.53. The FTSE 250 index ended up 93.01 points, 0.4%, at 22,407.51, and the AIM All-Share closed down 0.09 points at 760.14.
In European equities on Monday, the CAC 40 in Paris closed up 0.1%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt ended 0.1% higher.
The pound was quoted at 1.3491 dollars at the time of the London equities close on Monday, down from 1.3510 dollars at the time of the early London equities close on Wednesday. The euro was lower at 1.1757 dollars from 1.1790 dollars. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at 156.04 yen, up from 155.92 yen.
Late on Friday, around the time of the closing bell on the New York Stock Exchange, the pound traded at 1.3504 dollars, the euro at 1.1780 dollars, and the dollar bought 156.50 yen.
London’s financial markets opened on Monday for the first time since last Wednesday, after closing for Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
The markets will close early this Wednesday, before the New Year’s Day holiday on Thursday. The market reopens on Friday for a full trading day.
This week’s global economic calendar has minutes from the December Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Tuesday, before a swathe of manufacturing PMI readings on Friday.
Stocks in New York were lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.5%, the S&P 500 index retreated 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.7%.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.12%, narrowing from 4.16% on Wednesday. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was quoted at 4.80%, slimmed from 4.82%.
Pending home sales in the US grew by more than expected in November.
According to the National Association of Realtors, pending home sales rose 3.3% on-month in November. This figure surpassed the FXStreet-cited consensus, which had projected a rise of 1.0% during the month.
On a year-over-year basis, pending home sales increased by 2.6%.
According to NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun, “homebuyer momentum is building. The data shows the strongest performance of the year after accounting for seasonal factors, and the best performance in nearly three years, dating back to February 2023”.
Brent oil was down at 61.48 dollars a barrel at the time of the London equities close on Monday from 62.58 dollars at the time of the early London equities close on Wednesday. However, it was up from 60.32 dollars at the time of the New York equities close on Friday.
Gold bought 4,336.60 dollars an ounce at Monday’s close, down from 4,492.58 dollars on Wednesday and from 4,528.06 dollars on Friday. Gold had hit a record high above 4,549 dollars an ounce on Friday.
In London, International Personal Finance led the way on the FTSE 250 index as its shares jumped 5.9%. The firm said it has agreed a G£543 million all-cash takeover by BasePoint Capital, with the acquisition expected to complete in the third quarter of 2026.
Under the terms of the offer, IPF shareholders will receive 235 pence in cash for each share, valuing the provider of credit products and insurance services at around £543 million. IPF shares closed at 220.00p on Wednesday.
The offer represents a premium of around 31% to IPF’s closing share price of 179.2 pence on July 29, the last trading day before the company entered an offer period.
The agreed offer follows a series of approaches from BasePoint earlier this year. In September, IPF said it had received an improved indicative proposal of 235p per share, raised from an initial 220p approach made in July, and indicated at the time that its board would be minded to recommend the offer if a firm bid were made.
IPF’s board has unanimously recommended the offer, and completion of the acquisition is subject to shareholder approval.
Chairman Stuart Sinclair said: “Whilst the board continues to believe in the strategy and long-term prospects of IPF on a standalone basis, we recognise that the acquisition allows IPF shareholders to monetise their entire investment for cash at a fair price.
“We believe that the business will benefit from BasePoint’s ownership and its commitment to fulfil IPF’s purpose of building a better world through financial inclusion.”
Elsewhere, Everyman Media shares closed flat after chief executive Alex Scrimgeour stepped down with immediate effect, as analysts said “time had run out” for the boss after a profit warning and the resignation of the finance director earlier this month.
Mr Scrimgeour’s departure follows finance director Will Worsdell’s resignation two weeks ago. He is leaving at the end of March.
The London-based premium cinema chain has appointed Farah Golant, currently non-executive director, as the interim chief executive.
“Farah has extensive experience across the global creative, entertainment and media industries, and a track record of accelerating growth and cultivating high performance, results-oriented organisations,” said Philip Jacobson, the company’s non-executive chairman.
“Everyman has now lost both its chief executive and its finance director over the past fortnight,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell. “That’s unfortunate timing and means the pressure is on to find a new leadership team fast.”
“The share price fell by 76% during his tenure and time had run out,” he added.
Mr Scrimgeour has stepped down after Everyman’s profit warning earlier this month, where it said it was “operating in a challenging economic environment” with recent UK box office performance “weaker than anticipated”.
“It’s fair to say that 2025 wasn’t a golden year for new film releases, making matters worse for Everyman. Its recent profit warning was blamed on a weak fourth quarter film state, and the release schedule for the next few months doesn’t instil much optimism,” said Mr Coatsworth.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Fresnillo, up 82.0 pence at 3,282.0p, Glencore, up 8.3p at 402.6p, Convatec, up 5.0p at 243.0p, Anglo American, up 57.0p at 3,069.0p, and Entain, up 14.0p at 764.6p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Babcock International, down 33.0p at 1,227.0p, Hiscox, down 21.0p at 1,407.0p, British American Tobacco, down 60.0p at 4,155.0p, BT Group, down 2.5p at 182.3p, and Halma, down 43.8p at 3,524.2p.
On Friday’s economic calendar are minutes from the latest meeting of the US Federal Open Market Committee as well as house price index figures for the US.
There are no events scheduled on Tuesday’s local corporate calendar.
– Contributed by Alliance News
Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
DETROIT — General Motors is on pace to be the top U.S.-traded automaker stock of 2025, as shares of GM are having their best year since the Detroit company’s reemergence from bankruptcy in 2009.
GM stock is up over 55% to a record of more than $80 per share, as of Friday’s close, topping the company’s previous annual increase of 48.3% last year. That includes a nearly 13% rise so far in December, adding to five consecutive months of share gains, according to FactSet.
Several factors have been driving the share increase. But GM CEO Mary Barra and other executives have contended for years that the automaker’s stock has been significantly undervalued given its consistent earnings performance.
“Great vehicles, innovative technology, a rewarding customer experience, along with strong financial results, will continue to set GM apart in an increasingly competitive landscape,” Barra said during the company’s last quarterly earnings call in October.
Amid the stock’s run-up, Barra has significantly cut her position in the company. She has exercised options or sold roughly 1.8 million shares this year, valued at more than $73 million, according to public filings confirmed by GM.
As of the last public filing in September, Barra still owned more than 433,500 shares valued at over $35 million, with much of her annual awards granted in options and stock.
GM’s stock performance compares with a 17% yearly increase for Tesla as of Friday’s close, a 34% jump for Ford Motor and a 15% loss for Chrysler parent Stellantis. Other U.S.-traded automakers such as Honda Motor and Toyota Motor have had smaller annual gains.
Auto stocks
GM ‘s most recent quarterly earnings were a major catalyst for Wall Street analyst bullishness that led to reratings and price target increases after the third quarter.
The automaker’s quarterly adjusted earnings per share have topped Wall Street estimates every quarter except the second quarter of 2022 over the past five years, according to average expectations of analysts compiled by FactSet.
Wall Street analysts overall have cited GM’s cash generation, earnings resilience and track record in delivering shareholder returns, including stock buybacks, as reasons for their optimism. The automaker also is expected to greatly benefit from regulation changes under the Trump administration, despite ongoing tariffs.
UBS recently increased its 12-month price target on GM stock by 14% to $97 per share, while naming the company its top autos pick heading into 2026. Morgan Stanley earlier this month also upgraded GM to overweight, with a $90 per share price target.
“In our view, General Motors leads the D3 in the North America and Global market with steady unit sales growth, [average transaction price] growth, disciplined incentive spend, and inventory management. This has resulted in better [earnings before interest and taxes] margin and return metrics than peers,” Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Percoco said in a Dec. 7 investor note.
GM stock has cumulatively been in the black on a weekly basis since June. The largest weekly gain of 19.3% occurred when the automaker reported its third-quarter earnings on Oct. 21. Those results beat Wall Street’s expectations and the company raised its annual guidance, adding that next year’s earnings are expected to be better than 2025’s.
GM stock’s has also seen a boost from some external factors. The Trump administration has loosened U.S. fuel economy and emissions standards, removed related penalties that were imposed under the Biden administration, and renegotiated its trade deal with South Korea, a major manufacturing hub for GM. Meanwhile, the industry has been seeing a slowdown in less profitable EV sales.
“GM is effectively a regional (NA) [automaker] and we believe they are well positioned to benefit from the relaxed US regulatory environment (emissions and fuel economy),” UBS analyst Joseph Spak said in a Dec. 15 investor note raising the per share price.
GM CFO Paul Jacobson earlier this month said the company will continue stock buybacks.
“As long as the stock remains as undervalued as it is, the priority is to buy back shares. And I think you’ll continue to see that from us going forward,” he said during a UBS investor conference.
GM is rated overweight with an $80.86 target price, according to analyst averages compiled by FactSet.
— CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
Correction: Lucid shares are down for the year. An earlier version misstated their move.
The boss of cinema chain Everyman has stepped down less than three weeks after the company warned trading had been weaker than expected.
Everyman Media Group said on Monday that Alex Scrimgeour was leaving with immediate effect and would be replaced on an interim basis by non-executive director Farah Golant.
His sudden departure comes after the firm issued a trading update on 10 December where it cut its forecasts for revenue and earnings, sending its shares down 20%.
The cinema chain runs 49 venues across the UK and is known for its luxury seating and gourmet menus.
Mr Scrimgeour became chief executive of Everyman Media Group in January 2021 after heading French restaurant chain Cote Brasserie since 2015.
In its trading update earlier this month, the firm said trading at the end of the year had been “weaker than anticipated”. As a result, it expected revenues of £114.5m for 2025 and underlying earnings of at least £16.8m, down from previous forecasts of £121.5m and £19.9m respectively.
Chairman Philip Jacobson said Mr Scrimgeour had “played a pivotal role in the team that successfully led the business through its recovery from Covid, more than doubling revenue”.
Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, said the outgoing boss had to “deal with a succession of crises from day one” including the cost-of-living, as well as the the pandemic.
However, he added: “The share price fell by 76% during his tenure and time had run out.
“While the cinema industry did manage to regain some of its sparkle post-pandemic, Everyman lost its edge in the market.”
Mr Coatsworth said the upmarket chain had once offered “a unique proposition”, but had since been copied by rivals, including Vue and Odeon, which have installed reclining seats and “also rolled out bars inside their cinemas”.
He added that it would be interesting to see if Blue Coast Private Equity, which owns a 29% stake in Everyman, would buy the chain, “opting to remove it from the public spotlight to enact a turnaround programme”.
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