PepsiCo is dusting off its three-year-old plan to buy the re-maining 90 per cent of Britvic held by its partners in the company; the brewers Bass, Allied Domecq and Whitbread. The last time it considered such a plan – a 400m takeover – it was shelved after opposition from Allied Domecq which has a 22.5 per cent stake. The other brewers were keen to get out of the soft drinks business, which they believed to be peripheral to their own. But Allied Domecq's opposition, rooted in concerns over the trading deals between the brewers and the supply contracts demand-ed by PepsiCo, stalled the deal. But now there is, according to sources, fresh impetus for the deal. The new plan is said to be a result of Bass's imminent takeover of Carlsberg-Tetley, which means that Allied Domecq will be free of the brewing interests which were the sticking point last time round.