22 December 2013
HYDERABAD: Food and beverage giant PepsiCo on Saturday announced setting up of its largest beverage plant in the country at Sri City straddling Chittoor and Nellore districts.
The greenfield plant, spread over 80 acres and being put up at an investment of nearly Rs 1230 crore, will manufacture PepsiCo's entire range of beverages, including sports drink Gatorade, and will generate around 8,000 direct and indirect jobs at full capacity.
In the first phase, which will kick off immediately, the plant will see an investment of Rs 450 crore and a capacity of 1.2 million litres per day being achieved by the third or fourth quarter of next year, followed by the second phase with an investment of Rs 400 crore by 2015 and addition of a similar capacity.
In the third phase, PepsiCo will pump in Rs 380 crore by 2017, top company officials said on Saturday at the ground breaking ceremony performed by chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddyand state major industries minister J Geeta Reddy.
Speaking on the occasion, the CM said the plant will benefit 50,000-60,000 mango farmers in the region as PepsiCo will be acquiring an estimated 2 lakh metric tonnes of mango per year for its juice business. "PepsiCo already has its largest beverage manufacturing plant at Sangareddy near Hyderabad and I am extremely pleased that they have chosen our state for setting up their largest plant," the CM said, urging the present PepsiCo top brass to consider investing in AP a chunk of the Rs 33,000 crore India investment commitment made recently.
PepsiCo India chairman and CEO D Shivakumar reiterated the company's commitment to make AP its national mango pulp procurement hub. "As per our commitment to the AP government, we will substantially increase our mango pulp procurement for various plants."
Terming India as a high priority market, he said the Sri City facility will be a key part of the MNC's growth plans in India. "We are delighted to locate it in AP, an investor friendly and progressive state with a receptive government. AP is a large beverage market with robust demand through the year. The Sri City plant will boost our production capacity and support the growing demand for PepsiCo India's beverage products," he said.
Allaying concerns that the plant would become a water guzzler, the PepsiCo India chairman said they had been assured of water supply from the Telugu Ganga project by the government and had also inked an MoU with Sri City for setting up a desalination plant.
Published by: The Times Of India