A SCHWIPE AT SCHWEPPES; PEPSI TO LAUNCH CITRUS DRINK.

Byline: Skip Wollenberg Associated Press 

Pepsi-Cola Co. plans to test a new lemon-lime beverage early this year in Denver in hopes of competing more effectively against Coca-Cola Co.'s Sprite and Cadbury Schweppes PLC's 7-Up brands.

The nation's second-biggest soft drink company is calling its new drink Storm. It would effectively replace the lemon-lime version of Slice as Pepsi's main entry in the industry's biggest flavor category after colas.

Brad Shaw, a spokesman for Somers, N.Y.-based Pepsi-Cola, confirmed Monday the company has selected Denver as one of possibly several test markets. He declined to say precisely when the test would begin.

Pepsi executives have been telling industry analysts for months that they were considering ways to become a greater force in the beverage category.

Lemon-lime Slice has been available for a decade but hasn't done as well as Pepsi executives had hoped.

John Sicher, editor and publisher of the trade publication Beverage Digest, said the lemon-lime category accounts for about 11.2 percent of the soft drink industry's sales volume. That makes it second only to the colas, and ahead of the citrus segment that includes Pepsi's Mountain Dew and Coca-Cola's Surge brands.

Beverage Digest reported on the test site selection in Monday's edition.

If Storm does well in test markets and Pepsi makes it available nationally, independently owned Pepsi bottlers may have to decide whether to carry it or 7-Up or both brands. Pepsi bottlers in the United States account for about one-third of 7-Up sales, Beverage Digest estimates.