US – PepsiCo Beverages North America (PBNA), the subsidiary of American food and beverage company, PepsiCo, has commissioned a new US$8.5 million warehouse and distribution facility in Commerce, Georgia.
The company said the 172,000-square-foot site will distribute 6 million cases of beverages including Pepsi, Mtn Dew, Gatorade, Bubly, Aquafina, and Pure Leafe annually across 26 routes to customers in 28 countries.
Darcy Arata, senior VP of operations at PBNA south division said: “This new facility is an integral next step in our recent expansion in the state of Georgia and will increase our capacity and productivity in the state.”
Our Commerce facility will enable PepsiCo to better service the needs of our customers across key counties in northern Georgia and give them the great beverages they love while creating job opportunities on the ground.”
The commissioning follows PepsiCo’s US$260 million expansion of the PBNA manufacturing facility in the City of Tucker in March.
PepsiCo’s division intended to expand the facility by more than 260,000 square feet so as to increase production at the plant five-fold by 2025, making it one of the largest manufacturing facilities in the company’s portfolio.
Through its operating facilities, PepsiCo committed US$460 million of capital in Georgia over the past two years.
PBNA invests in circular economy
PBNA also invested US$35 million with Closed Loop Partners to create the “Closed Loop Local Recycling Fund,” an innovative circular economy initiative to advance new small-scale, modular recycling systems in communities across the US in January 2022.
The fund was aimed to increase recycling in areas with no or limited access to recycling, reducing waste and unlocking a new supply of recycled plastic (rPET), among other valuable materials, to support PepsiCo’s pep+ (PepsiCo Positive) sustainable packaging goals.
Closed Loop Partners will use the investment to deploy small-scale modular Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) in underserved communities that currently lack access to larger municipal MRFs, according to PepsiCo.
This investment reinforces PepsiCo’s desire to create a world where packaging never becomes waste and to increase recycling rates in the United States.
PBNA aims to support PepsiCo’s goal to cut virgin plastic from non-renewable sources across our food and beverage portfolios by 50% by 2030.
The US$35million came on the heels of a US$15 million PBNA investment in Closed Loop Partners’ Leadership Fund, to strengthen recycling infrastructure and build circular supply chains that keep materials out of landfills.
The two investments are part of a long history of PepsiCo partnering with Closed Loop Partners to make strides on material recovery and infrastructure advancements.
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