PepsiCo announces plans to invest $100m in its Egypt factories

Jun 8, 2020

PepsiCo has announced plans to invest nearly $100m this year into Egypt as part of an expansion plan. Overall, the company plans to invest $515m between 2018 and 2021 into its most important market in Africa.

As part of its investment, PepsiCo will expand the production capacity at subsidiaries Pepsi Cola Egypt and snacks manufacturer Chipsy for Food Industries, which it acquired in 2001. PepsiCo will invest in new technologies, sustainable development and community development projects.

PepsiCo made the announcement following a meeting between Mohamed Abdel-Wahab, CEO of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones, and Mohamed Shelbaya, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo Egypt.

Egypt is one of the few countries in Africa forecast to show positive economic growth in 2020, following the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. A key driver of investment interest is the fall in Egypt’s overall inflation rate, from a high of 23.5% in 2017 down to a forecast 5.9% in 2020. Even with short term price hikes associated with the pandemic, Egypt’s annual consumer price inflation only rose to 5.9% in April 2020, compared to 12.5 percent in April 2019.

Although it has a strong presence in the Middle East, PepsiCo is not even close to Coca-Cola in the soft drinks market in Africa. It is starting to make more strategic investments, notably in snacks. Such as its headline acquisition of South Africa’s Pioneer Foods and its early stage investment in Ethiopian potato chips manufacturer Senselet.

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