Work begins on PepsiCo's Rs1,200-cr plant in Andhra

PepsiCo has started work on a Rs1,200-crore plant in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh, which the company claims, will be its largest and most water efficient beverage plant in India.

The project is part of the recently announced plans by PepsiCo and its partners to invest Rs33,000 crore to drive growth across its India business by 2020.

The beverage plant that will come up in Sri City, a special economic zone in Chittoor district on the border of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, will provide direct and indirect employment to 8,000 people, PepsiCo said.

The first phase of the plant, with a capacity to handle 1.2-million litres per day, will be completed by the third or fourth quarter of FY15 at an investment of Rs450 crore, D Shivakumar, chairman and CEO, PepsiCo India, said.

PepsiCo will invest Rs400 crore in the second phase commencing in 2015, and the remaining amount in the third phase expected to begin in 2017, he said.

The Sri City facility will have eight production lines when completed and will manufacture PepsiCo's entire range of beverages – carbonated soft drinks, fruit juice-based drinks and sports drinks, said Kanish Malik, vice president of operations, PepsiCo India. The production lines at the facility will be the fastest among PepsiCo's 38 beverage bottling plants in India, Malik said.

PepsiCo India also announced plans to substantially increase sourcing of mango pulp from Andhra Pradesh. It will source mango pulp from 60,000 farmers of Chittoor, Nellore and Prakasam districts of the state over the next six years.

Welcoming PepsiCo's investment in the state Kiran Kumar Reddy, chief minister of Andhra Pradesh said, ''PepsiCo already has a beverage manufacturing plant at Sangareddy in Andhra Pradesh and I am extremely pleased that they have chosen our state for setting up their largest plant. The proposed plant will be completed in three phases and once fully operational, the plant will provide direct and indirect employment to over 8,000 people."

"India is a high priority market for PepsiCo and we see tremendous opportunities to expand our food and beverage business here in the coming years. This state of the art beverage facility is a key part of our growth plans for the Indian market and we are delighted to locate it in Andhra Pradesh, an investor friendly and progressive state with a receptive government. Sri City is ideally located and offers the perfect opportunity to harness the benefits of superior connectivity, great infrastructure and an ample talent pool, which are the prerequisites for every industry," Shivakumar said.

The new plant will manufacture a range of beverages, including fruit juice based drinks, carbonated soft drinks and sports drinks.