$30m Pepsi bottling plant to create 3 000 jobs

ZIMBABWEAN businessman Adam Molai and Indian billionaire Ravi Jaipuria are forging ahead with plans to open a Pepsi bottling plant by the first quarter of 2017.

Source: $30m Pepsi bottling plant to create 3 000 jobs – NewsDay Zimbabwe June 3, 2016

The $30 million Pepsi bottling plant, expected to create 3 000 jobs, is one of the biggest investments in Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector in recent years, PepsiCo Africa group CEO Krishnar Shankar said in a statement yesterday.

“I believe this Pepsi project should be seen as a showcase initiative, with the government ensuring there are no delays in approvals and licences, to showcase Zimbabwe’s investment potential to the world,” he said.

The plant, initially scheduled for completion at the end of 2016, is now expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2017.

Shankar said administrative delays could detract foreign investment in Zimbabwe. “We secured land in Zambia with no delays, and resolved VAT registration in neighbouring countries like Mozambique and Zambia with no problems,” he pointed out, urging the Zimbabwean government to facilitate the same ease of doing business.

The Indian businessman added the plant has the potential to contribute significantly to the Zimbabwean economy once it is up and running. “As far as the revenue benefits are concerned, we can compare the new plant to Pepsi in Zambia. Prior to the entry of Pepsi, the Zambia’s industry size was 16 million cases. In only five years the industry size has nearly doubled, to
30 million cases. This has a direct impact on government revenue the in terms of VAT.”

The Pepsi bottling plant that has a total investment of $30 million from India’s Varun Beverages, will occupy a total land space of 7,3 hectares, including an 8 125 square metres manufacturing facility and a 1 330 square metres utility area.

The plant would bring to Zimbabwe world-class manufacturing equipment including a Linker automatic filling and crowning machine from Poland, an automatic sugar conveying machine from India, a shrink wrapper machine from Germany, Automatic cleaning in place (CIP) system and more.

In the launch phase, the plant will have a high speed 600-bottles-per-minute production line and an ultra-modern 400-cans-per-minute filling line.

Zimbabwean partner Molai remains confident that the country is well positioned to develop into the new “gateway to Africa”.

“Zimbabwe is the next frontier and an ideal springboard into the rest of Africa. Thanks to the dollarisation of our currency, we are no longer subject to the vagaries of the exchange rate, and due to excellent natural resources and a relatively low cost of doing business, Zimbabwe is poised for an economic growth spurt,” Molai said.