Soft drink and snack food giant PepsiCo recently announced plans to boost operations in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
It said it would form a joint venture in Egypt between its Egyptian salty snack provider Tasty Foods and Chipsy, the current market leader in the country. The new entity will be known as Chipsy International and will be majority owned by PepsiCo.
PepsiCo also announced that in Saudi Arabia it had completed negotiations to acquire Tasali Snack Foods, the country's largest supplier of salty snacks. Pending government approval, the assets of Tasali will be combined with those of Saudi Snack Foods, a PepsiCo joint venture that is now the second largest snack company in Saudi Arabia.
Commenting on PepsiCo's broader financial outlook, chairman Roger Enrico said the company was "confident that we can achieve our full year target of 12 to 13 percent growth for 2001." — (AFP, New York)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
