GREECE: End of the line for PepsiCo-Ivi operations | Progresiv
Ninety years after the first production of soft drinks in Greece under the name Ivi, and 43 years after the Ivi-Panagopoulos company first started making Pepsi Cola in the country, the machinery at the PepsiCo-Ivi plants ground to a halt on Monday. 
PepsiCo, the multinational parent company of PepsiCo-Ivi, on Monday announced the end of operations at its plant in Inofyta, Viotia, after six loss-making years, making the soft drinks giant the latest of many international companies to have shipped out of Greece. The plant will turn into a storage unit.
The announcement came from Christophe Guille, the parent company’s general manager for Central Europe and the Greater Balkans, saying that “the firm will safeguard its competitiveness and be able to realize its plans for long-term growth on the local level.”
In early 2013 PepsiCo-Ivi had shut down its water bottling plant at Loutraki, near Corinth, which is now expected to be acquired by Cypriot company Hellenic Water.
The domestic market’s PepsiCo soft drink requirements will now be covered by imports from other European countries.
The production of Ivi juice products will continue in Greece at an affiliated plant at Sparta, in the Peloponnese, as will the production of snacks at Aghios Stephanos in Attica by Tasty Foods, another PepsiCo subsidiary. (www.ekathimerini.com)
