Lesson 3 · 50 minutes · Grades 9–12

Same industry, different business: Coca-Cola and PepsiCo

Same industry, different business is a free 50-minute high school lesson (grades 9–12) on how two soda companies make money in different ways. Students compare where each $100 Coca-Cola and PepsiCo took in during FY2025 went, then use each company's Form 10-K to explain the gap without ranking them.

By Hardik Bhandare · Checked against filings: Nov 7, 2026. Editorial policy. Corrections

For learning only. Cityfort is not a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer and does not recommend buying or selling any security. Prices shown are dated and may be out of date.

Grade: High school, grades 9–12
Time: 50 minutes, or two 25-minute blocks
Formats: Web page, student page, teacher guide (PDF), worksheet with exit ticket (PDF), answer key (PDF), slides (PowerPoint)
Companies: Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, McDonald's, Chipotle, Costco, Walmart
Data: Data from Coca-Cola's FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Feb 20, 2026; PepsiCo's FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Feb 3, 2026; McDonald's FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Feb 24, 2026; Chipotle's FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Feb 4, 2026; Chipotle's Q3 FY2026 Form 10-Q, filed Oct 29, 2026; Costco's FY2026 Form 10-K, filed Oct 7, 2026; and Walmart's FY2026 Form 10-K, filed Mar 13, 2026. Checked Nov 7, 2026.
Edition: 2026–27 first edition, v1.0
License: Free under CC BY-NC 4.0. No student logins.

It comes with slides, a student worksheet with an exit ticket, an answer key and a teacher guide. Students never log in, and every number comes from the companies' SEC filings.

Students start with one puzzle. In FY2025, Coca-Cola kept $25.3 of every $100 that came in as net income, and PepsiCo kept $8.8.

They look at both receipts line by line. Then they read one short passage from each company's 10-K and a few facts about how each one runs.

They sort what is the same and what is different on a Venn diagram. They finish by explaining the gap out loud with sentence frames, and on a three-question exit ticket.

The ground rule is printed on the worksheet: "In this lesson, we explain differences. We don't rank the companies or judge them as investments."

What's included?

Teacher guide (PDF)PDF · 150 KB
Student worksheet (PDF)PDF · 134 KB
Answer key (PDF)PDF · 104 KB
Slides (PowerPoint)PPTX · 58 KB

Student page (no login, no answers): cityfort.co/teachers/how-companies-make-money/same-industry-different-business/student · short link for the board: cityfort.co/class/compare

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https://cityfort.co/teachers/how-companies-make-money/same-industry-different-business

What will students learn?

Students can explain how two companies in the same industry earn money in different ways. They use each company's receipt and its own 10-K, and they do not rank the companies.

Students can explain how two companies in the same industry earn money in different ways.

How long does this lesson take?

50 minutes, or two 25-minute blocks

Minutes	Step	What happens
0–5	Hook	Hook: the two receipts, and one question: why so different?
5–20	Read	Read: one 10-K passage and three fact cards per company
20–35	Sort	Sort: Venn diagram of receipt lines and business choices
35–45	Talk	Talk: structured discussion with sentence frames
45–50	Exit ticket	Exit ticket

What do students need?

Each student needs the two-page worksheet. It prints in black and white and holds every number and passage, so the lesson works with no devices.
You project the slides. You can also project the Coca-Cola vs. PepsiCo comparison page on cityfort.co to show the same receipts on the site. Students do not need to open any website.

Discussion questions

What business choice explains the biggest difference in the receipts? Listen for: most of Coca-Cola's revenue comes from concentrate sold to bottlers. Most of PepsiCo's comes from snacks and drinks it makes itself. That shows up in making costs ($35.5 vs. $45.9) and selling and administrative costs ($28.0 vs. $39.8).
What does "franchise" mean in McDonald's 10-K, and how does it change the receipt? (Use with the extension.) Listen for: franchisees run about 95% of McDonald's restaurants and pay it rent and royalties. So McDonald's receipt has no franchisee food or wage costs. Chipotle runs all its restaurants in the U.S. and Canada, so food ($29.4), labor ($24.9) and rent and other restaurant costs ($19.8) are on its receipt.
Could you use these receipts to rank the two companies? What else would someone need to know? Listen for: ranking is a judgment, and it depends on what a person values. PepsiCo takes in almost twice the revenue; Coca-Cola keeps more of each $100. The receipts show differences, not an order. That is why Cityfort does not rank companies.

How do I adapt it for ELL and IEP students?

English language learners: English learners: the worksheet has a word bank and sentence frames. In Part C, the key words in each passage and fact card are printed in bold.
IEP and 504 plans: IEP and 504 plans: a matching version (Version B) replaces the open questions. For large print, enlarge the worksheet when printing (tabloid paper works well).
Advanced students: Advanced students: a third pair, Costco and Walmart, keeps about the same share of each $100. Students explain why their receipts still look different.
Extension: Use cityfort.co/compare/chipotle-vs-mcdonalds and the extension box on worksheet page 3. Hook: both sell fast meals. In FY2025, McDonald's kept $31.7 of every $100 that came in. Chipotle kept $12.8. McDonald's: franchisees ran about 95% of its 45,356 restaurants at the end of 2025. Its 10-K says franchisees pay "rent and royalties based upon a percent of sales." Franchisees paid 61.6% of its FY2025 revenue. Chipotle: its 10-K says it "owns and operates Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants." It had 4,267 company-owned restaurants at Sep 30, 2026 (Form 10-Q, filed Oct 29, 2026). Food and drink sales were 99.5% of its FY2025 revenue. Ask: "Why does Chipotle's receipt show food, labor and rent, while McDonald's shows franchised restaurants' occupancy?"

Which standards does it support?

We say a lesson supports a standard, never that it covers it fully.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.7 (Common Core states): Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.

The full standards table

Teacher background in 2 minutes

The puzzle

In FY2025, Coca-Cola kept $25.3 of every $100 that came in as net income. PepsiCo kept $8.8.

The short answer

The two companies do different work. Most of Coca-Cola's revenue (59%) comes from selling concentrate to bottling partners, who make, package and deliver the drinks. Most of PepsiCo's revenue comes from finished products it makes: snacks (58%) and drinks from bottlers it owns (36%).

What the two have in common

Both sell some concentrate to bottlers, and both own some bottlers. The difference is the mix: how much of each company's revenue comes from each kind of work.

Where it shows on the receipts

Making the products took $35.5 of Coca-Cola's $100 and $45.9 of PepsiCo's. Selling, general and administrative costs took $28.0 and $39.8.

Both 10-Ks make the same point

Coca-Cola's 10-K says finished drinks bring in more revenue but lower gross profit margins than concentrate. PepsiCo's 10-K says the same about its own finished drinks: more revenue, but lower operating margins than concentrate sold to bottlers (Note 1, page 67).

Size runs the other way

PepsiCo's FY2025 net revenue was $93.9 billion, almost twice Coca-Cola's $47.9 billion. Keeping fewer dollars per $100 is not the same as being smaller.

Two things that are not the business model

Write-downs. Both companies lowered the value of a drinks brand in FY2025. Coca-Cola's "other operating charges" ($2.4) were mostly a $960 million write-down of its BodyArmor trademark. PepsiCo's "impairment of intangible assets" ($2.1) was mainly for its Rockstar brand. The two lines are close, so they don't explain the gap. Other income. Coca-Cola's $100 includes $3.89 billion of interest, equity and other income. That includes a $1.95 billion one-time gain from selling its stake in Coke Consolidated, a bottler. Measured on revenue alone, operating income was $28.71 per $100 at Coca-Cola and $12.24 at PepsiCo. The gap is still there.

Fiscal years

Coca-Cola's FY2025 ended Dec 31, 2025. PepsiCo's ended Dec 27, 2025, the last Saturday of December. Both cover 2025, so the comparison holds.

If students ask about owning shares

Say: "This class explains businesses. It doesn't judge companies as investments." Then return to the receipts.

If your class runs a stock-market simulation, these lessons can come before it: they explain what a company does and how it reports results. They do not suggest which companies to choose, and Cityfort does not run, rank or judge simulation picks.

Splitting into two 25-minute blocks

For 45-minute periods, split it into two 25-minute blocks. Block A runs the hook and the reading and starts the Venn diagram. Block B finishes the Venn diagram, then the discussion and the exit ticket.

How does the lesson support the standard?

This lesson supports, and does not claim full alignment with, this standard:

See the full mapping on the standards page.

Literacy (Common Core states): CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.7, "Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem." Students combine a numbers table, two filing passages and fact cards to explain one question.

How were the figures worked out?

Every number comes from a company's SEC filing, as shown on its cityfort.co page. The main lesson uses Coca-Cola's and PepsiCo's FY2025 Form 10-Ks. The extension uses McDonald's and Chipotle's FY2025 Form 10-Ks, plus Chipotle's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended Sep 30, 2026 (its restaurant count). The advanced pair uses Costco's and Walmart's FY2026 Form 10-Ks. Coca-Cola's 10-K covers the year ended Dec 31, 2025 and was filed on Feb 20, 2026. PepsiCo's covers the year ended Dec 27, 2025 and was filed on Feb 3, 2026.

Each receipt line is a Cityfort calculation: the line's dollar amount divided by the money that came in, times 100. Lines are rounded to the nearest 10 cents, so a total may differ from $100 by a few cents.

Data checked Nov 7, 2026. The lesson uses no share prices.

Who made this lesson?

Hardik Bhandare, Cityfort. I decide what to cover and approve every page; every number is checked against the filing it came from.

Where do the numbers come from?

Data from Coca-Cola's FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Feb 20, 2026; PepsiCo's FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Feb 3, 2026; McDonald's FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Feb 24, 2026; Chipotle's FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Feb 4, 2026; Chipotle's Q3 FY2026 Form 10-Q, filed Oct 29, 2026; Costco's FY2026 Form 10-K, filed Oct 7, 2026; and Walmart's FY2026 Form 10-K, filed Mar 13, 2026. Checked Nov 7, 2026. The lesson keeps these dated numbers until the next edition.

S1 Coca-Cola: Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (year ended Dec 31, 2025) · The Coca-Cola Company (SEC EDGAR) · Feb 20, 2026
S2 PepsiCo: Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (year ended Dec 27, 2025) · PepsiCo, Inc. (SEC EDGAR) · Feb 3, 2026
S3 McDonald's: Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (year ended Dec 31, 2025) · McDonald's Corporation (SEC EDGAR) · Feb 24, 2026
S4 Chipotle: Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (year ended Dec 31, 2025) · Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (SEC EDGAR) · Feb 4, 2026
S5 Chipotle: Form 10-Q for Q3 FY2026 (quarter ended Sep 30, 2026) · Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (SEC EDGAR) · Oct 29, 2026
S6 Costco: Form 10-K for fiscal year 2026 (year ended Aug 30, 2026) · Costco Wholesale Corporation (SEC EDGAR) · Oct 7, 2026
S7 Walmart: Form 10-K for fiscal year 2026 (year ended Jan 31, 2026) · Walmart Inc. (SEC EDGAR) · Mar 13, 2026

Questions teachers ask

Is there a free lesson comparing the Coca-Cola and PepsiCo business models?: Cityfort's Lesson 3, Same industry, different business, is a free 50-minute lesson for grades 9–12 that compares how Coca-Cola and PepsiCo make money. It uses numbers and passages from each company's FY2025 Form 10-K.
Does this lesson ask students to choose one company over the other?: Students explain why two receipts differ and never rank the companies or judge them as investments. The ground rule is printed on the worksheet, and the slides repeat it.
Why doesn't Coca-Cola's receipt start from its revenue?: Coca-Cola's receipt counts all the money that came in during FY2025, $51.8 billion. That is revenue plus interest, equity and other income. Measured on revenue alone, its operating income was $28.71 per $100, against PepsiCo's $12.24.
Why don't the receipts add up to exactly $100?: Each line is rounded to the nearest 10 cents. PepsiCo's lines add to $100.1, and Coca-Cola's to $100.0.
Can I teach it with McDonald's and Chipotle instead?: The McDonald's and Chipotle pair is the built-in extension, with its own receipts, passages and answers. It shows the same idea with restaurants: one company mostly collects rent and royalties, the other runs all its restaurants in the U.S. and Canada itself.
Do students need accounts or devices?: Students need no accounts and no devices. The worksheet prints with every number and passage, and the website is optional.

Optional further reading

These pages are on the main Cityfort site, which has its own ads and sign-up options. No lesson step needs them.

How do I credit and share it?

Credit line to copy: "How real companies make money: Lesson 3 – Same industry, different business" by Cityfort (cityfort.co/teachers/how-companies-make-money/same-industry-different-business), CC BY-NC 4.0. Data from Coca-Cola's FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Feb 20, 2026; PepsiCo's FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Feb 3, 2026; McDonald's FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Feb 24, 2026; Chipotle's FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Feb 4, 2026; Chipotle's Q3 FY2026 Form 10-Q, filed Oct 29, 2026; Costco's FY2026 Form 10-K, filed Oct 7, 2026; and Walmart's FY2026 Form 10-K, filed Mar 13, 2026.

License: CC BY-NC 4.0. If you change this material, please remove the Cityfort name or mark it as modified; changed versions are not reviewed by Cityfort.

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Questions or corrections: contact us.

What changed (1)

v1.0, Nov 7, 2026: First edition.

Last updated Nov 7, 2026.

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