Pepsico’s West Bengal plant is likely to become its largest on India by 2011 with production capacity of around 50,000 ton per annum.
At a press conference in Kolkata, Animesh Banerjee, vice-president (operations) of Pepsico India, said, “We have recently bought close to 4 acres more adjacent to our existing 10-acre plant in Sankrail in West Bengal. Currently, we are making ‘Lays’ and ‘Kurkure’ at this plant. The intention is to make the West Bengal plant Pepsico’s largest in India with a production capacity of 50,000 ton per annum by 2011, up from 20-25,000 ton per annum right now.”
Simultaneously, the company’s employees and farmers engaged in raw material supply will also go up. Currently, the company has 400 direct and indirect employees at its West Bengal plant. The company currently has 10,000 farmers engaged in raw material supply nationally, which would be increased to 25,000 farmers in five years, informed Banerjee.
The company at present has three company-owned manufacturing units in Pune, Punjab and West Bengal. The company today launched ‘Aviva’ range of baked savoury crackers in Kolkata.
“We intend to make ‘Aviva’ a larger brand than ‘Kurkure’,” said Vidur Vyas, EVP-marketing - Indian snacks of Pepsico. “We will use Kurkure’s established distribution network - over 1 million outlets - to reach out to consumers faster.
Also, the total market for baked savoury is around Rs 8,000 crore, while the ‘Kurkure’-consuming market is within Rs 2,000 crore. So we have a wider consumer base to reach out to,” Vyas added.