RUSSIA – PepsiCo, Inc. has broken ground on a new snacks processing plant in Novosibirsk, Russia, the company’s third salty snacks plant in Russia. The company owns more than 20 production sites in Russia, having reportedly invested over US$10 billion since it began operations in the country.
The new facility will make Lay’s chips and Khrus Team croutons and will have an expected capacity of more than 60,000 tonnes. The company said it is investing approximately 12 billion rubles (US$160 million) in the plant. The first two production lines of the plant are expected to be operational by the end of 2021.
“The region has created favorable conditions for the work of large foreign investors. Despite the objective difficulties caused by the pandemic, we plan to build and launch a new enterprise on time,” said Neil Sturrock, president of PepsiCo Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Caucasus and Central Asia.
“The new plant will be built in accordance with the principles of PepsiCo — it will be as energy efficient as possible; modern environmental standards will be introduced here, including for waste disposal. To provide the plants with the necessary raw materials, our agricultural team is already working on the development of the raw material base of our future suppliers.”
“The new plant will be built in accordance with the principles of PepsiCo — it will be as energy efficient as possible; modern environmental standards will be introduced here, including for waste disposal.
Neil Sturrock – president of PepsiCo, Russia and BUCCA
PepsiCo also said it will introduce an agricultural program in the region aimed at providing the new plant with local potatoes. All Lay’s potato chips in Russia are made exclusively from potatoes grown in the country, PepsiCo said.
As the largest industrial buyer of potatoes in Russia, PepsiCo runs a large-scale agro programme, which includes organising training sessions and seminars for growers, as well as providing farmers with seeds, fertilisers and plant protection products.
The Novosibirsk facility is expected to increase the efficiency of the company’s logistics network through localisation of production. With its establishment, PepsiCo will be able to provide local consumers and those from nearby countries with snacks manufactured in Siberia.
“We highly appreciate the support of our project that the government of Novosibirsk region and the Governor Andrey Travnikov personally provided,” said Neil Sturrock.
PepsiCo expects the facility to create around 900 new jobs in the Novosibirsk region.
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