USA based food and drinking giant PepsiCo announced that it would build a sixth factory in Türkiye. The Prime Ministry Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Türkiye (ISPAT) proposed the location for the food factory, which will be established over a 100,000 square meter area in Manisa. The factory will house 35,000 square meters of indoor space and will have new technologies such as potato-handling and product delivery units.
One of the first foreign direct investments to have been finalized after the foiled coup attempt on July 15th, the announcement of the new factory was made together by ISPAT President Arda Ermut and PepsiCo General Manager Levent Yüksel.
PepsiCo General Manager Levent Yüksel said in the launch meeting that Türkiye is a strategically important market for PepsiCo given the country’s growing economy, sound financial structure, and young labor force. Yüksel noted that PepsiCo provides employment for more than 43,000 people in Türkiye across their five operating factories and within the scope of production, R&D, and sales activities.
Yüksel talked about their three criteria that led them to choosing Manisa for their sixth factory location in Türkiye. He said that Manisa’s organized industrial zone provided highly suitable infrastructure, that there was a qualified labor force in the region, and that its strategic location would provide easy access to the Izmir and Antalya markets. Yüksel pointed out that the plant will employ 350 people in the initial phase and that this number is expected to be more than 500 by 2022. Yüksel ended by saying that the new factory will have a 25-30 percent share in PepsiCo’s total production volume in Türkiye.
Speaking at the meeting, ISPAT President Arda Ermut underlined that the investment decision of such a giant international company in Türkiye is an indication of their strong support and belief in the future of the country. Ermut once again reminded that the markets overcame uncertainty and stabilized in a couple of days in the wake of the coup attempt on July 15th. He went on to say that under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, policy-makers, regulators, and other economic actors in Türkiye have been following the recent developments and taking all necessary measures to reassure the markets. He ended by expressing his gratitude to PepsiCo for standing by Türkiye and continuing to view the country as an investment destination.
PepsiCo operates three beverage factories in Izmir, Corlu and Adana, and currently two food factories in Kocaeli and Mersin. The company provides 3,000 direct and more than 40,000 indirect employment opportunities in Türkiye.