PepsiCo Inc. (PEP) shelved plans to build a $140 million drinks plant in Russia after acquiring local dairy and juice producer OAO Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods in 2011, the company said today in an e-mailed statement.
The company announced it would build the plant in Rostov region, southern Russia, in 2010. The plan was “delayed indefinitely” after PepsiCo bought Will-Bill-Dann, becoming Russia’s largest food and beverage producer, spokesman Sergey Glushkov said in the statement.
After the acquisition, PepsiCo has 40 production units in Russia and ex-Soviet states and needs to develop them, Glushkov said. The company plans to invest “several hundreds of millions of dollars” to develop in Russia, Zein Abdalla, then-chief executive officer for PepsiCo Europe, said last year. Abdalla became president of PepsiCo in September.
PepsiCo acquired 66 percent of Wimm-Bill-Dann in 2011 for $3.8 billion from Russian controlling owners and then bought out minorities.
