PEPSICO is to invest US$350 million to open 10 bottling plants in largely untapped cities in China as part of an ambitious long-term strategy to turn itself into the largest soft drinks company on the mainland by the end of the century.
The listed US soft drinks giant hoped that the expansion programme - which will increase the firm's production capacity from 65 million eight-ounce cases to 370 million cases within five years - would raise its market share from the existing seven per cent to 25 per cent by 2000, an official said.
''It's our intention by the year 2000 to be the leading soft drinks company in China and obviously these plans will go a long way in helping us do it,'' said James Lawrence, Pepsi-Cola International's president for Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
The plants would produce Pepsico's flagship drinks - Pepsi-Cola, 7-Up and Miranda - and other carbonated and non-carbonated drinks, including some Chinese brands.
The deal came after Pepsi signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese National Council of Light Industry in Beijing on Tuesday.
Under the deal, the council will remove for Pepsi the restrictions imposed on foreign investments in the beverage market, in return for the US company's commitment to build a core business on the mainland.
