PepsiCo has announced plans to build a new manufacturing plant in southwest Poland to produce potato snacks for export to over 20 European markets. The firm claims that the factory, its fifth and largest investment in Poland so far, will be the biggest and most sustainable such facility in Europe.
The 1 billion zloty (€218 million) plant, producing Lay’s potato chips and Doritos tortilla chips, will be located near the town of Środa Śląska in Lower Silesia and is expected to be completed in 2025.
The facility will span 54,700 square metres and create an estimated 450 jobs, becoming “the largest and most environmentally sustainable…in Europe”, according to the company’s press release.
PepsiCo, whose other plants in Poland already use 100% renewable electricity, has pledged that the new factory will become climate-neutral by 2035 through low utility consumption, solar energy generation and rainwater collection.
The company will also use potato peels for biomass energy and then for low-carbon fertiliser, as well as reusing frying oil as vehicle fuel.
PepsiCo has been present in Poland since 1991, when it opened its Michrów factory near Warsaw. It has since built three more: in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Żnin and Tomaszów Mazowiecki.
In 2019, the company also opened a back office with 400 jobs in Kraków. It now employs a total of 3,600 people and works with 80 farms across the country.
“Poland’s strategic geographic location offers a central location for production to meet consumer demand across Europe,” Michał Jaszczyk, the company’s general manager in Poland, told Food Ingredients First, an industry website.
“Poland also boasts a strong talent pool and offers high-quality agricultural raw materials, including corn, potatoes and sunflower oil,” he said, noting that the company has run an Agro Farming Program with Polish farmers for over 27 years and would extend these partnerships to supply the new plant.
The company already uses 230,000 tonnes of sustainably grown potatoes per year and will now require an additional 10,000 tonnes of corn and 60,000 tonnes of potatoes from local farmers.
Speaking at the launch event for the new factory, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that it would be the biggest of its type in Europe. The project is proof that Poland is “trusted by American investors” and is “creating the best possible investment climate”, he declared.
In recent weeks, Poland’s relations with the US have been threatened by proposed legislation limiting foreign ownership of media in Poland. That would likely force an American company, Discovery, Inc., to sell its majority stake in the TVN broadcasting network. The 20-year investment is one of the US’s largest ever in the country.
Foreign investment in Poland fell by 35% last year amid the pandemic. The country has, however, performed consistently well in international rankings for foreign investment, due to its large economy, benefits of EU membership, low labour costs and high quality of the workforce, as well as improving infrastructure.
Main image credit: PepsiCo Poland press material
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
