Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) Risk Analysis

The success of our business depends in part on our ability to maintain consumer confidence in the safety and quality of all of our products, including beverage products, their ingredients, their packaging, and our brewers. A failure or perceived failure to meet our quality, health, or safety standards, particularly as we expand our product offerings through innovation, partnerships, or acquisitions into new beverage categories, including product contamination or tampering, undeclared allergens, or allegations of mislabeling, whether actual or perceived, has occurred, and may in the future occur, in our operations or those of our bottlers, manufacturers, distributors, or suppliers. This could result in time-consuming and expensive production interruptions, recalls, market withdrawals, product liability claims, and negative publicity. It could also result in the destruction of product inventory, lost sales due to the unavailability of product for a period of time, fines from applicable regulatory agencies, and higher-than-anticipated rates of warranty returns and other returns of goods. Moreover, negative publicity may result from false, unfounded, or nominal liability claims or limited recalls. In addition, adverse public opinion, third-party studies, or other allegations, whether or not valid, regarding the perceived or potential negative health effects of processing or ingredients in our beverage products, such as concerns about the caloric intake associated with soft drinks or the use of synthetic colors, nutritive and non-nutritive sweeteners or other additives in our beverages, or chemicals of concern or other substances in our ingredients or materials, may contribute to actual or threatened legal action against us, negative consumer perception of our products, new or increased taxes on our products, or additional government regulation, including new or increased restrictions on the inclusion of our products in benefit programs, such as the U.S. supplemental nutrition assistance program known as SNAP, any of which could result in decreased demand for our products or reformulations of existing products to remove such ingredients or substances, which may be costly and reduce their appeal. Such risks may be increased if government officials make public statements about alleged risks purportedly associated with processing, particular ingredients used in our products, or unintentional contaminants that may be present in the water supply. Any or all of these events may lead to a loss of consumer confidence and trust, could damage the reputation of our brands, and may cause consumers to choose other products, which could negatively affect our business and financial performance.

We continue to incur significant costs to maintain or upgrade various technologies, facilities, and equipment or restructure our operations, including closing existing facilities or opening new ones. We invest in new and emerging technologies, including the use of automation, connected data, robotics, and artificial intelligence throughout our operations, including in our manufacturing and distribution facilities and our sales organization. If the cost of our investments is higher than anticipated, the investments and upgrades are not sufficient to meet our near-term future business needs, our business does not develop as anticipated to appropriately utilize new or upgraded facilities, or third parties fail to complete the construction or renovation of facilities or production equipment in a timely manner or in accordance with our specifications, we may be delayed in realizing the intended benefits or our costs and financial performance could be negatively affected. We have ongoing programs to invest and upgrade our manufacturing, distribution, and other facilities. These investments require us to rely on third parties for the construction and renovation of our facilities and manufacturing of our production equipment. We have experienced delays related to the production equipment contained within our manufacturing facilities, including delays in receiving the equipment or in operating the equipment according to specifications outlined by the manufacturer, which have led to increased costs, and we may continue to experience such delays and cost increases.

We are subject to income taxes and non-income-based taxes in many U.S. and certain foreign jurisdictions. Tax legislation may be enacted, domestically or abroad, that impacts our effective tax rate. Changes in tax laws, regulations, related interpretations, and tax accounting standards in the U.S. and various foreign jurisdictions in which we operate may impact our effective tax rate and adversely affect our financial results. In addition, our effective tax rate in any given financial statement period may be significantly impacted by changes in the mix and level of earnings or by changes to existing accounting rules, tax regulations, or interpretations of existing law. Significant judgment is required in determining our annual income tax expense and in evaluating our tax positions. Although we believe our tax estimates, including intercompany transfer pricing policies, are reasonable, the final determination of tax audits and any related disputes could be materially different from our historical income tax provisions, estimates, and accruals. The results of audits or related disputes could have a material adverse effect on our financial statements for the period or periods for which the applicable final determinations are made and for periods for which the statute of limitations is open.

We possess intellectual property that is important to our business. This intellectual property includes ingredient formulas, trademarks, copyrights, patents, business processes, and other trade secrets. We cannot be certain that the legal steps taken to protect our rights will be sufficient or that others will not infringe or misappropriate our rights. If we fail to adequately protect our intellectual property rights, or if changes in laws diminish or remove the current legal protections available to them, the competitiveness of our products may be eroded and our business could suffer. We and third parties, including competitors, could come into conflict over intellectual property rights, resulting in disruptive and expensive litigation. If we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights, our brands, products, and business could be harmed. We also license various intellectual property rights from third parties and license certain intellectual property rights to third parties. In some countries, third parties own certain intellectual property that we own in other countries. For example, the Dr Pepper trademark and formula is owned by Coca-Cola in some countries outside North America. Adverse events affecting those third parties or their products could also negatively impact our brands.

We, and our third-party service providers, use information technology to support our global business processes and activities, including supporting critical business operations; communicating with our suppliers, customers, and employees; maintaining financial information and effective accounting processes and financial and disclosure controls; engaging in mergers and acquisitions and other corporate transactions; conducting research and development activities; meeting regulatory, legal, and tax requirements; and executing various digital marketing and consumer promotion activities. Global shared service centers managed by third parties provide an increasing amount of services to conduct our business, including a number of accounting, internal control, information technology, human resources, and computing functions. Continuity of business applications and services has been, and may in the future be, disrupted by events such as infection by viruses or malware. In addition, our continuity of business applications and operations has been, and may in the future be, disrupted by other issues, including cybersecurity attacks (which may include social engineering, business email compromise, cyber extortion, denial of service, attempts to exploit vulnerabilities, hacking, website defacement, theft of passwords and other credentials, or unauthorized use of computing resources for digital currency mining); issues with or errors in systems' maintenance or security; migration of applications to the cloud; power outages; hardware or software failures; telecommunication failures; natural disasters; terrorist attacks; unintentional or malicious actions of employees or contractors; and fires and other catastrophic occurrences and other cyber incidents. Like most major corporations, we are regularly subject to cyberattacks and other cyber incidents, including the types of attacks and incidents described above. If we do not allocate and effectively manage the resources necessary to continue building and maintaining our information technology infrastructure, or if we fail to identify in a timely manner or appropriately respond to cyberattacks or other cyber incidents, including with respect to third-party service providers, our business has been and can continue to be adversely affected, which has resulted in and can continue to result in some or all of the following: business disruption, systems performance degradation, processing inefficiencies or other systems disruptions, the loss of or damage to intellectual property or sensitive data (including confidential information that we process and maintain about our employees or consumers through our e-commerce platform) through security breaches or otherwise, incorrect or adverse effects on financial reporting, litigation, claims, legal or regulatory proceedings, inquiries or investigations, fines or penalties, remediation costs, damage to our reputation or a negative impact on employee morale or the loss of current or potential customers, all of which can adversely affect our business. In addition, these risks also exist in acquired businesses, joint ventures, or companies we invest in or partner with that use separate information systems or that have not yet been fully integrated into our information systems. Similar risks exist with respect to our third-party service providers, including cloud data service and other information technology service providers, suppliers, distributors, contractors, and other business partners, that we rely upon for certain areas of our business, including payroll processing, health and benefit plan administration, and certain finance and accounting functions. When risks such as these materialize, the need for us to coordinate with various third-party service providers, including with respect to timely notification and access to personnel and information concerning an incident, and for third-party service providers to coordinate amongst themselves might make it more challenging to resolve the related issues. As a result, we are subject to the risk that the activities associated with our third-party service providers can adversely affect our business even if the attack or breach does not directly impact our systems or information. Although the cybersecurity incidents that we have experienced to date, as well as those reported to us by our third-party service providers, have not had a material effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations, such incidents could have a material adverse effect on us in the future. Security measures, including network security, backup and disaster recovery, upgrading systems and networks, enhanced training, and other security measures to protect our systems and data, cannot guarantee that we will be successful in preventing or responding to all cyber incidents, systems disruptions, system compromises, or misuses of data. In addition, due to the constantly evolving nature of security threats, we cannot predict the form and impact of any future incident, and the cost and operational expense of implementing, maintaining, and enhancing protective measures to guard against increasingly complex and sophisticated cyber threats could increase significantly. Although we maintain insurance coverage that may, subject to policy terms and conditions, cover certain aspects of a breach or disruption, such insurance coverage may be insufficient to cover all losses.

The beverage industry is highly competitive and continues to evolve in response to changing consumer preferences. We compete with multinational corporations that can rapidly respond to competitive pressures and changes in consumer preferences by introducing new products, changing their route-to-market, reducing prices, or increasing promotional activities. We also compete with various smaller or regional companies and private label manufacturers, which may be more innovative, better able to bring new products to market, and better able to quickly serve niche markets. Additionally, we compete for contract manufacturing with other bottlers and manufacturers. A significant portion of our business is attributable to sales of K-Cup pods for use with Keurig brewing systems. Continued acceptance of Keurig brewers to further increase household penetration is a significant factor in our growth plans. Any substantial or sustained decline in the sale of Keurig brewers could materially and adversely affect our business. Keurig brewers compete against all sellers and types of coffeemakers, as well as cafes and coffee shops. Our competitive position may be weakened if we do not succeed in differentiating Keurig brewers from our competitors' products. Our sales of beverages, Keurig brewers, K-Cup pods, and other products may be negatively affected by numerous factors including our inability to maintain or increase prices, our inability to effectively promote our products, new entrants into the market, the decision of wholesalers, retailers, or consumers to purchase competitors' products instead of ours, increased marketing costs, and higher in-store placement and slotting fees driven by our competitors' willingness to spend aggressively. In addition, the continued growth of e-commerce may create additional consumer price deflation by, among other things, facilitating comparison shopping, and could potentially threaten the value of some of our legacy route-to-market strategies and thus negatively affect revenues. If we are unable to effectively compete, our business and our financial results would be negatively affected.

Consumers' preferences continually evolve due to a variety of factors, including changing demographics of the population, social trends, changes in consumer lifestyles and consumption patterns, including from the use of weight loss drugs, concerns or perceptions regarding the health effects or environmental impact of our products or packaging, concerns regarding the location of origin or source of ingredients and products, changes in consumers' spending habits, negative publicity, economic downturn, or other factors. If we do not effectively anticipate and respond to changing trends and consumer beverage preferences, including through innovation and renovation, our sales and growth could suffer. Addressing changes in consumer preferences may require successful development, introduction, and marketing of new products and line extensions. There are inherent risks associated with new product or packaging innovation, including uncertainties about trade and consumer acceptance or potential impacts on our existing product offerings. Successful innovation may depend on our ability to obtain, protect, and maintain necessary intellectual property rights and to avoid infringing upon the intellectual property rights of others. Failure to innovate successfully could compromise our competitive position and impact our product sales, financial condition, and operating results. Consumers are increasingly focused on sustainability, with particular attention to the recyclability or reuse of product packaging, reducing consumption of single-use plastics and non-recyclable materials, and the environmental impact of manufacturing operations. If we do not meet consumer demands by continuing to provide sustainable packaging options and focusing on sustainability throughout our manufacturing operations, our sales could suffer. Consumer shopping behavior is also rapidly evolving. Changes in mobility, travel, and leisure activity patterns, the acceleration of e-commerce, inflation and economic uncertainty, and pandemics, epidemics, or other disease outbreaks, among others, have impacted and could continue to impact consumer shopping behavior and demand for our products. If we are unable to meet the consumer where and when they desire their products or if we are unable to respond to changes in distribution channels, our financial results could be adversely impacted.

The retail industry is experiencing continued consolidation of ownership and purchasing power, resulting in large retailers or buying groups with increased purchasing power, which impacts our ability to compete. Retailers may seek lower prices from us, may demand increased marketing or promotional expenditures in support of their businesses, and may be more likely to use their distribution networks to introduce and develop private-label brands, any of which could negatively affect our profitability. In addition, our industry is being affected by rapid growth in discount retailers and in e-commerce retailers, including traditional retailers who are expanding their e-commerce capabilities, and our business will be adversely affected if we are unable to maintain and develop successful relationships with such retailers. Further, we must maintain mutually beneficial relationships with our key customers to compete effectively. Any inability to resolve a significant dispute with any of our key customers, a change in the business condition (financial or otherwise) of any of our key customers, even if unrelated to us, a significant reduction in sales to any key customer, or the loss of any of our key customers may adversely affect our business.

Our ability to maintain our reputation and the brand image of our products is important to our success. Our corporate image and reputation has in the past been, and could in the future be, adversely impacted by a variety of factors, including: any failure by us or our business partners to achieve goals or maintain high standards relating to ethical and business practices, including with respect to human rights, child labor laws, workplace conditions, employee health and safety, the nutrition profile of our products, packaging, water use, and impact on the environment; any failure to address health or other concerns about our products, products we distribute, or particular ingredients in our products, including concerns regarding whether certain of our products contribute to obesity or an increase in public health costs; our research and development efforts; any product quality or safety issues, including the recall of any of our products; any failure to comply with laws and regulations; and consumer perception of our advertising campaigns, sponsorship arrangements, marketing programs, use of social media, and our response to political and social issues or catastrophic events or any failure to effectively respond to negative or inaccurate comments about us on social media or otherwise regarding any of the foregoing. Damage to our reputation or brand image could decrease demand for our products, thereby adversely affecting our business.

Changes in economic and financial conditions in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, or other geographies where we do business may negatively impact consumer confidence and consumer spending, which could result in a reduction in our sales volume and/or switching to lower price offerings. Similarly, disruptions in financial and credit markets worldwide may impact our ability to manage normal commercial relationships with customers, suppliers, and creditors. These disruptions could have a negative impact on the ability of our customers to pay their obligations on time, the ability of our vendors to supply materials in a timely manner, or the risk of counterparty default, each of which could reduce our cash flow. We cannot predict how current or future economic conditions will affect our business partners, including financial institutions with whom we do business, and any negative impact on any of the foregoing may also have an adverse impact on our business. Disruptions in financial and credit markets could also have a negative effect on our ability to raise capital, including through the issuance of unsecured commercial paper or senior notes. In addition, declines in the securities and credit markets could affect our pension and PRMB assets and obligations, which in turn could increase our funding requirements. Unstable geopolitical conditions or events in certain markets, including civil unrest, acts of war, terrorism, or governmental changes, or changes in international relations could undermine global consumer confidence and reduce consumers' purchasing power, thereby reducing demand for our products. Restrictions on business activities, which have been or may be imposed or expanded as a result of political and economic instability, deterioration of economic relations between countries, such as changes in or terminations of existing trade agreements, or the imposition of tariffs (including recent U.S. tariffs imposed or threatened to be imposed on Canada, Mexico, China, Brazil, and other countries, and any retaliatory actions taken by such countries), or otherwise, has and could continue to impact our profitability or otherwise have an adverse effect on our business. We do not currently have operations in Russia, Ukraine, or the Middle East, but due to the impact of the ongoing conflicts in those regions on the global economy, we have experienced and may continue to experience supply chain constraints; inflation in input costs, logistics, manufacturing, and labor costs; volatility in fuel and commodity prices and fluctuations in foreign exchange rates and interest rates, any of which could adversely impact our results of operations.