Snapple 2011 Annual Report Download - page 35

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Substantial disruption to production at our manufacturing and distribution facilities could occur.
A disruption in production at our beverage concentrates manufacturing facility, which manufactures almost all of our
concentrates, could have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, a disruption could occur at any of our other facilities
or those of our suppliers, bottlers or distributors. The disruption could occur for many reasons, including fire, natural disasters,
weather, water scarcity, manufacturing problems, disease, strikes, transportation interruption, government regulation or terrorism.
Alternative facilities with sufficient capacity or capabilities may not be available, may cost substantially more or may take a
significant time to start production, each of which could negatively affect our business and financial performance.
Our facilities and operations may require substantial investment and upgrading.
We have an ongoing program of investment and upgrading in our manufacturing, distribution and other facilities. We expect
to incur substantial costs to upgrade or keep up-to-date various facilities and equipment or restructure our operations, including
closing existing facilities or opening new ones. If our investment and restructuring costs are higher than anticipated or our business
does not develop as anticipated to appropriately utilize new or upgraded facilities, our costs and financial performance could be
negatively affected.
We may not be able to renew collective bargaining agreements on satisfactory terms, or we could experience strikes.
As of December 31, 2011, approximately 5,000 of our employees, many of whom are at our key manufacturing locations,
were covered by collective bargaining agreements. These agreements typically expire every three to four years at various dates.
We may not be able to renew our collective bargaining agreements on satisfactory terms or at all. This could result in strikes or
work stoppages, which could impair our ability to manufacture and distribute our products and result in a substantial loss of sales.
The terms of existing or renewed agreements could also significantly increase our costs or negatively affect our ability to increase
operational efficiency.
We depend on key information systems and third party service providers.
We depend on key information systems to accurately and efficiently transact our business, provide information to management
and prepare financial reports. We rely on third party providers for a number of key information systems and business processing
services, including hosting our primary data center and processing various accounting, order entry and other transactional services.
These systems and services are vulnerable to interruptions or other failures resulting from, among other things, natural disasters,
terrorist attacks, software, equipment or telecommunications failures, processing errors, computer viruses, hackers, other security
issues or supplier defaults. Security, backup and disaster recovery measures may not be adequate or implemented properly to avoid
such disruptions or failures. Any disruption or failure of these systems or services could cause substantial errors, processing
inefficiencies, security breaches, inability to use the systems or process transactions, loss of customers or other business disruptions,
all of which could negatively affect our business and financial performance.
Our products may not meet health and safety standards or could become contaminated.
We have adopted various quality, environmental, health and safety standards. However, our products may still not meet these
standards or could otherwise become contaminated. A failure to meet these standards or contamination could occur in our operations
or those of our bottlers, distributors or suppliers. This could result in expensive production interruptions, recalls and liability
claims. Moreover, negative publicity could be generated from false, unfounded or nominal liability claims or limited recalls. Any
of these failures or occurrences could negatively affect our business and financial performance.
We may not comply with applicable government laws and regulations and they could change.
We are subject to a variety of federal, state and local laws and regulations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and other countries
in which we do business. These laws and regulations apply to many aspects of our business including the manufacture, safety,
labeling, transportation, advertising and sale of our products. See "Regulatory Matters" in Item 1, "Business," of this Annual Report
on Form 10-K for more information regarding many of these laws and regulations. Violations of these laws or regulations could
damage our reputation and/or result in regulatory actions with substantial penalties. In addition, any significant change in such
laws or regulations or their interpretation, or the introduction of higher standards or more stringent laws or regulations could result
in increased compliance costs or capital expenditures. For example, changes in recycling and bottle deposit laws or special taxes
on soft drinks or ingredients could increase our costs. Regulatory focus on the health, safety and marketing of food products is
increasing. Certain state warning and labeling laws, such as California's "Prop 65," which requires warnings on any product with
substances that the state lists as potentially causing cancer or birth defects, could become applicable to our products.