PepsiCo has entered into an agreement with Varun Beverages, a subsidiary of India's RJ Corp. food and drinks group, to manufacture and distribute snacks in Zimbabwe and Zambia. Varun Beverages, which is situated in Gurgaon, Haryana, intends to allocate approximately $7 million to the construction of two facilities for the production of PepsiCo's Simba Munchiez brand of snacks.
Varun Beverages, a long-time franchisee for PepsiCo’s soft drink brands like Mountain Dew, Miranda, and 7-Up since the 1990s, is expanding into snack production. Their new facilities in Zimbabwe and Zambia are set to produce approximately 5,000 metric tonnes of Simba Munchiez snacks annually for these markets.
In Zimbabwe, the snacks market is valued at about $177 million per year, and in Zambia, it stands at around $156 million annually. Varun Foods in Zimbabwe and Varun Beverages in Zambia, both subsidiaries of Varun Beverages, will manage the production of Simba Munchiez.
The Zimbabwe facility aims to start operations by October 1 next year, while the Zambia plant is scheduled to begin production by April 1, 2026. Additionally, Varun Beverages has entered into an agreement with PepsiCo to manufacture Cheetos snacks in Morocco, with production slated to commence on May 1 next year.
RJ Corp., the parent company led by chairman Ravi Jaipuria, manages franchises in India for prominent foodservice outlets such as KFC, Costa Coffee, and Pizza Hut, among others. The company achieves an annual revenue of approximately $2 billion.
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