Ramon Laguarta took away an important lesson in 2015 when PepsiCo Inc. PEP 0.93% ended a failed joint venture to sell yogurt in the U.S.: You need to go small before you go big.
Now the 54-year-old is set to take the helm of PepsiCo as the maker of Lay’s potato chips and Mountain Dew continues to expand its offerings in response to rapidly shifting consumer tastes.
“We need to think [carefully] about moving into a new space where we’re probably not as competent as our core categories,” Mr. Laguarta, who takes over as CEO for Indra Nooyi on Oct. 3, said in an interview.
“We’re trying to do multiple testings in countries around the world,” he said. “When we see if something is working, then we scale it up.”
Mr. Laguarta is a native of Barcelona who speaks English, Spanish, French, German, Greek and Catalan. He has an M.B.A. from Spain’s ESADE business school and worked at Chupa Chups SA, a candy company based in Spain, before joining PepsiCo in 1996.
He rose through the ranks of the European operations, becoming head of PepsiCo’s Europe and sub-Saharan Africa business. Last year he was tapped as Ms. Nooyi’s No. 2 and relocated to the U.S. from Geneva with his wife, Maria. They have three sons.
Mr. Laguarta broadened the company’s beverage portfolio in Europe, promoting a sugar-free version of Pepsi called Pepsi Max, as consumers moved away from sugary sodas. It’s now a billion-dollar brand, and his favorite cola.
For breakfast every day, he eats the company’s Quaker oats with blueberries and, being from Spain, he said, he loves PepsiCo’s grab-and-go gazpacho brand, Alvalle.
He also played a key role in closing a $5.4 billion deal in 2010 for the Russian dairy products and fruit-juice maker Wimm-Bill-Dann, marking PepsiCo’s second-largest acquisition after its 2001 purchase of Quaker Oats Co.
Blair Effron, an investment banker at Centerview Partners who worked with Mr. Laguarta on that deal, said Mr. Laguarta has a global outlook, much like his predecessor. “He will be a very visible leader,” he said.
Mr. Laguarta said he aims to accelerate the company’s overall growth while achieving the company’s goal for sales growth of nutritious products to outpace the rest of the portfolio by 2025.
In a recent video presentation to staff, which was posted on Vimeo, Mr. Laguarta said he hopes the company, which has been growing 2% or 2.5% a year, can grow at 5%.
“The future is not going to be easy,” he said in the video, ticking off challenges including regulations, tougher competition and the increased cost of growth. “Innovation is going to be key.”
Write to Jennifer Maloney at jennifer.maloney@wsj.com
Appeared in the August 7, 2018, print edition as 'Nooyi’s Successor Hails From Europe.'