GLOBAL – PepsiCo Beverages North America (PBNA) has opened a new 238,000-square-foot warehousing facility in Goodyear, Arizona, to house 300 employees at full capacity.
The facility, which is the size of more than four football fields, has been designed with sustainability features such as solar charging for delivery trailers and electric material handling equipment for increased energy efficiency and safety.
With a presence in Arizona since the mid-1970s, the company said PepsiCo is furthering its investment in the greater Phoenix metro community as it continues to grow through sustainable business solutions and new job opportunities for its residents.
The new Goodyear facility services the West side of the Phoenix metro area and is designed to accommodate more than ten years of high growth in the region, it added.
At the same time, PepsiCo plans to expand its Global Business Services Center (GBSC) in Hyderabad. The GBSC, which started operations in 2019 with 250 people and currently, now employs over 2,800, plans to bring its headcount to 4,000 in the next 18 months.
PepsiCo Global Business Services (GBS) delivers critical products and solutions for the company’s operations, digitalizing its human resources, and financial services.
PepsiCo executive vice president (Corporate Affairs) Roberto Azevedo met Industries Minister KT Rama Rao at the Telangana Pavilion on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual meet in Davos and discussed the company’s expansion plans in Telangana.
Azevedo said the company was keen to participate in sustainability initiatives in partnership with the Telangana government, including improving water efficiency, recycling, and reuse of plastics.
Minister Rama Rao expressed happiness over the rapid growth of PepsiCo’s GBS in Hyderabad and assured that the State government would provide all possible support for future investments of the company.
The developments are simultaneous to the US-based food, snack, and beverage company, plans of changing the recipe of Pepsi Zero Sugar to more closely mirror the taste of its signature cola with sugar.
In a statement, PepsiCo said consumer testing has shown the new Pepsi Zero Sugar beats the old formula, including the key metrics such as liking and purchase intent.
In a comprehensive assessment study, consumers preferred the new Pepsi Zero Sugar, considering it more refreshing, tasty, and having a real cola taste, the company said.
Compared to the previous version of its Pepsi Zero Sugar, the soda maker said it made the caffeine level the same as regular Pepsi and removed the ginseng, which is not in the sugar version of the beverage.
Beverage makers are cognizant that consumers are cutting back on sugar, making it important for them to have a market-leading product that taps into this ever-growing demographic trend.
The reformulation of the Zero Sugar beverage line follows a report from Allied Market Research which projects the global sugar-free carbonated drinks market size valued at US$125.3 billion in 2020 to reach US$243.5 billion by 2030, a compound annual growth rate of 7.3%.
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