PepsiCo India's bottling partner Varun Beverages opens Rs 550 cr facility in Punjab

PepsiCo India's bottling partner Varun Beverages (VBL) on Friday announced the opening of its Rs 550-crore facility in Pathankot, Punjab, which would roll out products from the cola major's beverage portfolio. The integrated facility will produce PepsiCo's Tropicana range of fruit juices, dairy-based products, carbonated soft drinks, Aquafina water, Gatorade and Lipton ice tea, according to a joint statement.

Spread over 41 acres, the company has commenced trial production in this greenfield production facility, which will be the first fully backward integrated facility to produce PepsiCo's beverage portfolio items. Besides, the facility is also expected to create over 5,000 direct and indirect jobs in the state.

PepsiCo India President and Chief Executive Officer Ahmed ElSheikh said: "This new facility will act as a hub to address the growing demand for our well-loved beverage portfolio among consumers in the state and beyond." Varun Beverages Chairman Ravi Jaipuria said: "The facility is strategically located close to target markets which will reduce time to market and enable optimisation of freight and logistics costs, aiding margin expansion."

VBL has been associated with PepsiCo from the 1990s and has franchises for various products across 22 states and two Union territories. It also has franchise rights for various PepsiCo products for Nepal, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

(With inputs from agencies.)