NOVOSIBIRSK, March 15. /TASS/. PepsiCo maintains plans to construct a plant for the production of snacks in the Industrial and Logistics Park of Russia’s Novosibirsk Region. The scheduled launch of the facility is set for late summer or early autumn of 2022, Director of Investor Relations at the Investment Promotion Agency of the Novosibirsk Region Elena Gogoleva told TASS on Tuesday.

Earlier, the management of PepsiCo announced the suspension of beverage sales in Russia, and investment in the country and advertisement activities here.

"The company confirms all previously announced plans. The launch is set for the end of summer or the beginning of autumn of 2022. Currently, the company is starting the commissioning and start-up process and the production testing," Gogoleva said, adding that around 400 employees have already been hired for work at the facility.

The agreement on constructing the plant was signed between PepsiCo and the Novosibirsk Region’s government in February 2019 at the Sochi Investment Forum. The construction started on the premises of the Industrial and Logistics Park in the autumn of 2020. Plans were in store that the first two lines of the facility would start operating at the end of last year. Investments in the project were expected at around 12 bln rubles ($106 mln).

By now around 8 bln rubles ($71 mln) have been invested in the project, Gogoleva said. The plant will produce up to 60,000 tonnes of products - chips and snacks - per year. The area, where apart from the plant a storage warehouse for potatoes will be located, totals 6 hectares. The building and assembly works are nearing completion at the facility now.