Pepsi Bottler to Build Bottling Factory in Romania

Pepsi bottling company PepsiAmericas is investing $150 million (euro105 million) to build Europe's largest bottling factory in Romania, officials said Monday.

The factory will be located west of Bucharest, the capital, and will cover 30,000 square meters. It will open on Sept.1, a press release said.

PepsiAmericas in 2007 took over the group Quadrant-Amroq Bottling QAB, a Pepsi producer and distributor in Romania.

QAB Romania owns two production units in Bucharest and one in Covasna, in central Romania.

Under Soviet communist rule, Pepsi was the only western soft drink that could be bought in Romania. Rival Coca Cola only appeared on the market in Romania after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1989.

PepsiCo announced earlier this month it reached an agreement to take over its two largest U.S. Pepsi bottlers, Pepsi Bottling Group and PepsiAmericas, in a $7.8 billion (euro5.45 billion) cash and stock deal.

PepsiAmericas sales were down 6 percent in the second quarter to $1.26 billion (euro880 million) compared with $1.34 billion in the same period a year earlier.

(This version CORRECTS headlines to say that Pepsi's bottler building is building the factory, rather than PepsiCo.)

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