Pepsi boss: Shareholders increase investments in Romania because the market will rise

Pepsi Americas, the domestic bottler of PepsiCo and Prigat drinks, will in mid-2009 finalise 65-70m dollar investments, 10m dollars above the value planned a year ago. "Giving up the project for the construction of the plant in Militari (Bucharest) or postponing it hasn't been an option at any time. Instead, when I asked shareholders to increase investments in Romania by ten million dollars for a new line at the plant in Covasna, I had doubts whether the project would be approved, because of the economic context," Mike Holmes, Pepsi Americas Romania chairman, told ZF. "However, the fact that we're increasing investments domestically and we're recruiting people shows we're confident about the growth potential of the domestic market," stated Mike Holmes, who counts on 7% higher consumption of soft drinks in 2009 against 2008. Pepsi will start producing non-carbonated soft drinks in the plant in Militari at the middle of this year, with approximately 70 employees. Around 40-50 people will be transferred from the Pepsi unit of Viilor, which will be gradually shut down because of its position. The Americans will operate total investments worth 100-120m dollars in the Militari plant by 2011-2012. "Our target for this year is to boost Pepsi Americas Romania sales above market growth. We will probably have a single-digit growth rate (in terms of volumes)," Holmes also said. On a market of above 1bn euros, Pepsi Americas sales can be put at over 230m euros in 2008, based on the growth pace reported on the first nine months of last year (10-12%).