PepsiCo Announces Targeted Investment of Rs. 33,000 Crores in India by 2020

NEW DELHI, Nov. 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- PepsiCo, Inc., one of the largest food and beverage businesses in India, today announced plans for the company and its partners to invest Rs. 33,000 crores (US$5.5 billion) in India by 2020.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120424/NY93895LOGO )

Making the announcement, PepsiCo Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Indra Nooyi said: "India is a country with huge potential and it remains an attractive, high-priority market for PepsiCo. We've built a highly successful business in India over the course of many years, and we believe we've only scratched the surface of the long-term growth opportunities that exist for PepsiCo and our partners. This investment is PepsiCo's vote of confidence in India's future and it represents our deep commitment to this great country."

India currently represents one of PepsiCo's largest markets globally. This Rs. 33,000 crore investment is expected to further strengthen and expand PepsiCo's capabilities in the following strategic areas:

• Innovation: PepsiCo will continue to expand the range of foods and beverages in its portfolio to cater to the wide and evolving needs of Indian consumers. PepsiCo has a long history of successfully innovating for the Indian market, and PepsiCo India already has organically built eight brands that generate Rs. 1,000 crores or more in estimated annual retail sales (Pepsi, Lay's, Kurkure, 7UP, Slice, Mirinda, Mountain Dew and Aquafina).
• Manufacturing: PepsiCo plans to significantly increase manufacturing capacity to meet the growing demand for its foods and beverages. PepsiCo and its partners plan to expand their production capacity in India to more than double current levels by 2020.
• Infrastructure: PepsiCo and its partners plan to ramp up selling and delivery infrastructure throughout the country, with a particular focus on rural market expansion. As part of this strategic initiative, PepsiCo will work with its partners to deploy new technologies designed to enhance service to retail customers and increase efficiency across go-to-market systems.
• Agriculture: Resources will be allocated to expand PepsiCo's well-known collaborative farming program, which provides farmers with access to good quality seeds, technical agronomic expertise, bank loans and crop insurance. This program currently reaches 24,000 farmers, positively impacting their income and social standing in addition to strengthening the reliability and quality of PepsiCo's supply chain.

"Most importantly, our investments will be aligned with India's interests," Nooyi added. "We will be guided by Performance with Purpose, PepsiCo's vision for building a profitable and sustainable 21st century corporation that is a good investment for our shareholders, a good environment for our employees, a good citizen in our communities and a good steward of our planet's resources. We believe Performance with Purpose will drive sustained value for PepsiCo and positively contribute to India's development well into the future."

Since opening its first operations in India in 1990, PepsiCo is estimated to have created opportunities for more than 200,000 people in the country through direct or indirect employment and agricultural collaborations.  It is estimated that the strategic initiative announced today will add more than 100,000 new employment opportunities, as well as strengthen India as a center of talent development for PepsiCo. 

In addition, as part of this strategic initiative, PepsiCo and its partners plan to implement state-of-the-art technologies to further reduce energy, packaging and water use in their operations. PepsiCo also intends to expand water recharge programs to sustain positive water balance.

The PepsiCo India system has made significant progress in recent years to align its business interests with those of India. For example:

• PepsiCo India achieved Positive Water Balance in 2010, replenishing more water than it uses in each successive year. PepsiCo's work with Indian farmers has reduced the amount of water used in rice cultivation, conserving more than 12 billion liters of water in 2012 alone.
• More than 40 percent of the energy requirement of PepsiCo's company-owned food and beverage plants in India comes from renewable sources. PepsiCo's food plants in Pune, Kolkata and Channo each have installed biomass boilers, enabling 70 percent of the energy needs of these facilities to be met through renewable energy.
• PepsiCo's Sathariya beverage plant was awarded LEED Gold Green Factory Building Certification by the Indian Green Building Council in 2013, marking India's first beverage or food plant to receive this distinguished certification.
• PepsiCo continues to expand its Quaker and Tropicana offerings in India to meet growing consumer demand for convenient and nutritional products.
• NourishCo, a joint venture between Tata Global Beverages and PepsiCo, launched Tata Water Plus, India's first nutrient water.

About PepsiCo

PepsiCo is a global food and beverage leader with net revenues of more than $65 billion and a product portfolio that includes 22 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in annual retail sales. Our main businesses – Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade, Frito-Lay and Pepsi-Cola – make hundreds of enjoyable foods and beverages that are loved throughout the world. PepsiCo's people are united by our unique commitment to sustainable growth by investing in a healthier future for people and our planet, which we believe also means a more successful future for PepsiCo. We call this commitment Performance with Purpose: PepsiCo's promise to provide a wide range of foods and beverages from treats to healthy eats; to find innovative ways to minimize our impact on the environment by conserving energy and water and reducing packaging volume; to provide a great workplace for our associates; and to respect, support and invest in the local communities where we operate. For more information, please visit www.pepsico.com.

Cautionary Statement

Statements in this communication that are "forward-looking statements" are based on currently available information, operating plans and projections about future events and trends. Terminology such as "believe," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "project," "anticipate," "will" or similar statements or variations of such terms are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such terms. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted in such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: changes in demand for PepsiCo's products, as a result of changes in consumer preferences and tastes or otherwise; changes in the legal and regulatory environment; PepsiCo's ability to compete effectively; PepsiCo's ability to grow its business in developing and emerging markets or unstable political conditions, civil unrest or other developments and risks in the markets where PepsiCo's products are sold; unfavorable economic conditions in the countries in which PepsiCo operates; increased costs, disruption of supply or shortages of raw materials and other supplies; failure to realize anticipated benefits from PepsiCo's productivity plan or global operating model; disruption of PepsiCo's supply chain; damage to PepsiCo's reputation; failure to successfully complete or integrate acquisitions and joint ventures into PepsiCo's existing operations or to complete or manage divestitures or refranchisings; PepsiCo's ability to hire or retain key employees or a highly skilled and diverse workforce; trade consolidation or the loss of any key customer; any downgrade or potential downgrade of PepsiCo's credit ratings; PepsiCo's ability to build and sustain proper information technology infrastructure, successfully implement its ongoing business transformation initiative or outsource certain functions effectively; fluctuations in foreign exchange rates; climate change, or legal, regulatory or market measures to address climate change; failure to successfully renew collective bargaining agreements or strikes or work stoppages; any infringement of or challenge to PepsiCo's intellectual property rights; and potential liabilities and costs from litigation or legal proceedings.

For additional information on these and other factors that could cause PepsiCo's actual results to materially differ from those set forth herein, please see PepsiCo's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. PepsiCo undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE PepsiCo, Inc.