Carlsberg to bottle PepsiCo soft drinks in Lithuania from 2029

Production to move to Carlsberg

Carlsberg Group will begin bottling PepsiCo soft drinks in Lithuania in 2029 under a new strategic partnership that expands the Danish brewer’s role in non-alcoholic beverage manufacturing. Lithuanian business publication VŽ reported that Carlsberg will take over production of the PepsiCo portfolio from rival beverage producer Royal Unibrew.

The arrangement places Lithuania within a broader group of Nordic and Baltic markets where Carlsberg will assume responsibility for PepsiCo bottling. According to information published on Carlsberg’s website and cited by VŽ, the new agreement will cover Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Denmark from 2029. The available information does not specify which Lithuanian facility will handle the drinks, what production capacity will be assigned to them or whether new bottling equipment will be required.

A 15-country bottling network

Once the agreement is fully effective, Carlsberg will hold PepsiCo bottling contracts in 15 countries. The company already identifies the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos and Cambodia as markets covered by such arrangements. Azerbaijan will join the network from 2027, followed by Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from 2029.

The timetable indicates that the partnership will be introduced in stages rather than through a single regional transfer. Azerbaijan is scheduled to move under the arrangement two years before the five Nordic and Baltic countries. No financial terms, contract duration or individual PepsiCo brands included in the Lithuanian production portfolio were disclosed in the source material.

Regional manufacturing implications

For Lithuania’s beverage industry, the change transfers a major international soft-drink production mandate between two established regional suppliers. Carlsberg is primarily known as a brewing group, but the agreement enlarges its contract bottling activity and gives its manufacturing network a broader role across alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Royal Unibrew, meanwhile, will relinquish PepsiCo production when Carlsberg takes over in 2029.

The five-country launch could allow Carlsberg to coordinate production, packaging and distribution across closely connected Nordic and Baltic markets, although the company has not described its planned allocation of volumes among plants. Lithuania’s precise role in that network therefore remains unclear beyond confirmation that PepsiCo drinks will be bottled in the country.

The agreement also gives producers, packaging suppliers and logistics operators a firm implementation date. Companies serving the Lithuanian beverage sector have until 2029 to prepare for the change in manufacturing responsibility. However, without disclosed capacity, investment or procurement figures, the immediate effect on demand for bottles, cans, sweeteners, concentrates and transport services cannot yet be quantified.

Details still to be announced

The central confirmed development is the transfer of PepsiCo product manufacturing from Royal Unibrew to Carlsberg Group and the inclusion of Lithuania in Carlsberg’s bottling system from 2029. The wider agreement will give Carlsberg a PepsiCo footprint spanning Europe and Central and Southeast Asia.

Further announcements will be needed to establish the size of the Lithuanian operation, the brands and package formats involved, and whether production will mainly serve domestic demand or other markets. Those details will determine how significantly the agreement changes Lithuania’s beverage manufacturing base and regional supply flows.