Recently, PepsiCo announced the launch of an automated warehouse at its Popești-Leordeni snack factory. With the accomplishment of this milestone, a strategic investment project worth over USD100m is completed.

Initially revealed in 2022, this substantial investment involved building an automated warehouse and adding three more production lines to the snack facility. With a current yearly manufacturing capacity of 39,000 tons, the business distributes goods to 17 nations, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Ukraine, Kosovo, and Hungary.

Built over a year, the state-of-the-art warehouse represents an investment of USD33.5m. The center of the 32,500 square meter facility is a 34-meter-tall high-bay storage space. With a total capacity of 23,500 pallets, this state-of-the-art warehouse can process up to 320 pallets in an hour.

“The completion of this investment marks an important step in centralizing all our operations in one location, transforming our factory into a strategic regional hub for Central and Southeastern Europe. With its impressive production and storage capacity, this facility will ensure efficient inventory control while reducing carbon emissions and operational costs,” Radu Berevoescu, General Manager & Senior Commercial Director East Balkans, PepsiCo Romania, mentioned.

With a 700 kWp installed capacity photovoltaic panel system, the warehouse is designed to be energy-independent. By lowering the number of handling locations, this configuration provides more effective inventory control and ensures pallet integrity. As part of its attempts to meet long-term targets under the pep+ agenda, PepsiCo is investing in a new automated warehouse that will drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 500 tons. The warehouse will help eliminate over 9,000 transfer trucks and five times the carbon footprint of a pallet kept over a year.

PepsiCo has been operating and investing in Romania for over 30 years. In the past decade, PepsiCo has directly invested USD320m in Romania, supporting the continuous development of its business in the country and strengthening its role as a regional production and distribution hub.