Michael D. White (right), chairman and CEO of PepsiCo International, with PepsiCo India chairman Rajiv Bakshi in Calcutta on Thursday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, Oct. 6: PepsiCo International is likely to make fresh investments in Bengal.

The company has firmed up plans to chip in Rs 35 crore at its Frito Lay factory in Sankrail, Howrah. It is also considering investments in other areas like beverages, juices and soft drinks.

Sources said Bengal is keen to rope in PepsiCo into juice production as the state is rich in pineapples and litchis.

Michael D. White, chairman and chief executive officer of PepsiCo International, today met Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Writers? Buildings. He was accompanied by Rajiv Bakshi, chairman of PepsiCo India, and Manu Anand, managing director of Frito Lay.

?We are looking at opportunities in Bengal. The industrial climate here is an excellent one and we are happy with our investments in the state,? White told The Telegraph.

Frito Lay India, an associate company of the $27-billion PepsiCo group, has begun making snack food from Sankrail. The Rs 80-crore plant has two lines of production ? Lays and Kurkure. The company makes Lays potato chips, Kurkure, Cheetos Fun Snacks, Uncle Chipps and Lehar Namkeen.

Frito Lay already owns two snack-food plants, located in Channo (Punjab) and Pune (Maharashtra), besides a conversion unit at Faridabad (Haryana).

White, who is leaving India tomorrow, has spent a week in India reviewing the operations spread across the country. ?India is a strategic growth area for us. We are looking at opportunities in India in all our business sectors ? snacks, beverages and soft drinks. We are aiming at a double-digit growth here,? White said.

PepsiCo International makes and sells soft drinks, juices, fountain syrups, and concentrates under the Pepsi, 7UP, Mirinda, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, and Tropicana brands outside North America. Most are sold through franchised bottlers.

Also included among PepsiCo India?s activities is the international sales of Frito-Lay and other salty snacks. PepsiCo International has divisions in more than 200 countries worldwide; its largest operations are in Mexico (Gamesa and Sabritas snack brands) and the UK (Walkers snack brand). In 2005, Walkers acquired Australian rice-based snackfood maker Sakata.