Pepsi”™s march into foods other than soft drinks continued this month with the June 3 opening of a yogurt plant in a Genesee County business park.
The $206 million Muller Quaker Dairy plant in Batavia is a joint venture of Purchase-based PepsiCo and Germany’s Theo Muller Co. Pepsi owns Chicago-based Quaker Oats Co., which also is a participant in the venture, initiated in 2011.
The 350,000-square-foot plant in the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park will produce a variety of yogurt products. It will employ 150 to 180 workers and is expected to churn out 120,000 cups per hour.
The plant is beside a $20 million yogurt plant opened last October by Alpina Foods, based in Bogota, Colombia.
“PepsiCo continues to perform at an extremely high level while simultaneously transforming our portfolio for the future and strengthening our position in high-growth food and beverage categories,” said CEO and chairwoman Indra Nooyi. “We have invested over many years to expand our global nutrition offerings in ways that allow us to capitalize on new growth opportunities, and the new Muller Quaker Dairy facility demonstrates continued progress against this key business priority.”
Pepsi did not announce its stake in the venture.
Theo Muller was founded in 1896 in Bavaria and is a major producer and distributor of dairy products in Europe.
Pepsi also announced its Q2 2013 earnings conference call for financial analysts and investors will be webcast Wednesday, July 24, at 8 a.m. The live webcast will be accessible through pepsico.com in the investors section under “Investor Presentations.”
