MOSCOW, July 8 (RIA Novosti) - A bottling plant opened by U.S. soft drink giant PepsiCo outside Moscow on Wednesday is expected to reach full capacity in three to four years, the company's top executive said.
Indra Nooyi, chair of the PepsiCo board of directors, said that the plant would be the largest bottler of beverages in Europe and the company's biggest bottling factory anywhere, once the planned production equipment has been installed.
The plant will be capable of bottling 2.1 billion liters a year, while investment in the facility's construction and outfitting totaled $180 million, Nooyi said, adding that the opening coincided with the 50th anniversary of Pepsi Cola first being introduced to Russia.
PepsiCo said on its website that with the opening of a franchise bottling plant in Novorissisk in 1974, Pepsi-Cola became the first Western-produced product to be made and sold in the Soviet Union.
Nooyi also said that the company was planning to invest $1 billion in Russia in the next three years on top of the $3 billion already invested in the country in the past decade.
PepsiCo also plans to develop a program to grant concessional loans to Russian farmers, Nooyi said.
The bottling plant located in Domodedovo will produce beverages like Aqua Minerale, Lipton Ice Tea (Unilever brand) and other soft drinks.
Russian Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina who attended the ceremony of the plant's opening, said that the Russian government welcomed foreign investment. "We are doing everything possible to improve the investment climate so that it can be comfortable to do business in Russia."
