March 18 2008, 09:19

PepsiCo bought the plant for the production of packs and juice bottling in Novosibirsk

PepsiCo company, the global giant producer of alcohol-free beverages, purchased the first asset in trans-Ural territory, where Coca-Cola Company, its main competitor has already occupied quite strong position, RBC Daily informs. Pepsi announced about the purchase of "Sobol-Aqua" plant in Novosibirsk; the market players estimated its cost to be worth to $ 8-10 mln. To their opinion, this deal will hardly help the company extend its share in Siberia, but the logistics expenses will be significantly less.

PepsiCo produces alcohol-free beverages (Pepsi, Mirinda, 7Up, Aqua Minerale and others), juices, confectionary and grocery products, and snacks. The turnover amounted to $ 35 billion in 2006. Till the present moment the company was represented by five plants for beverage bottling in Russia (Novorossiysk, Saint-Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Samara and Sochi) and the plans for chips production. Also, Pepsi is constructing a new plant in Domodedovo. The "Business Analitika" estimates the volume of Russian market of sparkling water to amount to 800 mln. of decalitres, or $ 4.5 billion per year.

Pepsi has been cooperating with Novosibirsk producer "Sobol-Aqua" since the end of 2006 - that time the company and the enterprise signed the contract for the production of at least 2.5 mln. plastic packs of "Pepsi" per month. Yesterday Pepsi announced about the finished deal on the 100% purchase of the enterprise, so that the company was hedged against the possible risk of the dissolution of the contract. There is a plan to update the plant and to fully load its capacities with the international brands (the water under "Sobol" trademark is also bottled now at the enterprise).

The capacities of Novosibirsk plant are 400,000 decalitres per month. The market players point out that this asset is small, so that Pepsi has hardly spent more than $8-10 mln. Nevertheless, this is an important strategic step for the company, because Pepsi has had no assets in Trans-Ural region till recently. At the same time, its main competitor Coca-Cola Company has production facilities in Vladivostok, Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk. The market players point out that the own production facilities in the region let Coca-Cola occupy around 40% of the refreshing beverages. Pepsi also failed to achieve the significant results in the juice segment: according to the data provided by "Business Analitika", the leaders of Siberian juice market are "Nidan" (45%), "Whim-Bill-Dann" (18.1%) and "Lebedyanskiy" (16.7%).

"Of course, this purchase will have no impact on Pepsi's share in Siberian region and in the country in general; but, the company will be able to save significant funds on the logistics", Andrey Yanovskiy, General Director of "Nidan Juices" company thinks. According to his data, Pepsi spent significant funds for the supply of the company's products in Siberia. "They had to deliver beverages from the other countries to some regions of Russia. For example, the water, bottled in Korea, was supplied to Far East", Mr. Yanovskiy adds.

In her turn, Marina Samokhvalova, the Analyst of "Capital" investment group thinks that the purchase of "Sobol-Aqua" let Pepsi increase its presence in Siberian region. She thinks that the facilities of "Sobol-Aqua" may almost fully satisfy the needs for Pepsi beverages of the inhabitants of Siberian region.