It has been
allotted 28 acres of land at the Sipcot Industrial park where it will produce
various snack items like potato chips, said sources.Interestingly, Manapparai
is famous for ‘murukku’ - a popular and crunchy South Indian snack - and
the Tamil Nadu government is trying to promote the place as a major food park.
The
expansion in Tamil Nadu for PepsiCo India comes in the backdrop of it steadily
expanding its snacks manufacturing capacity over the years. In 2023, it announced setting up of a plant in Assam
with an investment of ₹778 crore. This is likely to become operational in 2025
or early 2026. In the past, it has made significant investments in setting up
and expanding one of its largest greenfield food plant in Uttar Pradesh.
Mannappari
will also see JABIL, the $35 billion key supplier to global giants like Apple,
Cisco, and HP, establishing electronics manufacturing facility with an
investment of ₹2,000 crore, creating over 5,000 jobs. It signed anMoU with the
State government in September 2024.