July 6, 2009 (FinancialWire) — PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) said it plans to invest $1 billion in Russia over three years, along with its partner The Pepsi Bottling Group (NYSE: PBG).

According to Pepsico, the investment will bring the companies’ cumulative investment in Russia by PepsiCo and PBG to over $4 billion. It will fund various programs to expand manufacturing and distribution capacity.

The company’s is opening a new beverage facility opening this week in Domodedovo, and later this year plans to open a new snacks manufacturing plant in the southern Russian city of Azov.

PepsiCo and PBG also are also planning investments to build a warehousing and distribution infrastructure for the Lebedyansky juice business. And PepsiCo, which claims to be the largest private user of potatoes grown in Russia, plans to continue its investment in local agriculture.

The investments continue an expansion effort by PepsiCo and PBG that began in the late 1990s, with the opening of the companies’ first beverage plant of the modern Russian era, followed by the opening of PepsiCo’s first snack manufacturing facility in Kashira in 2002.

In 2008, PepsiCo and PBG invested around $2 billion to acquire Lebedyansky, a Russian juice company.

Pepsi’s history in Russia began in 1959 when former PepsiCo chairman and CEO Donald M. Kendall, then Pepsi-Cola’s international president, introduced Soviet chairman Nikita Khrushchev to Pepsi-Cola at the American National Exhibition in Moscow.

Somers, New York-based Pepsi Bottling Group is a manufacturer, seller and distributor of Pepsi-Cola beverages with around 67,000 employees and posted annual sales of nearly $14 billion. PBG has operations in the U.S., Canada, Greece, Mexico, Russia, Spain and Turkey. The company employs nearly 5,000 people in Russia.

Purchase, New York-based PepsiCo is employs around 198,000 people worldwide, and its products are sold in around 200 countries. The company’s principal businesses include Frito-Lay snacks, Pepsi-Cola beverages, Gatorade sports drinks, Tropicana juices and Quaker foods.

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