PepsiCo is investing £14.4m to increase the capacity of its Quaker Oats site at Cupar, Scotland, and increase its headcount by 30.
The investment, which builds on last year’s investment spend of £8.5m, makes a total of £51m that parent company PepsiCo has spent at the Quaker site over the past decade to meet the surge in consumer demand for porridge.
According to Pepsi, the UK porridge market is now worth £157m with the hot cereal market having grown by 30% over the past two years. For PepsiCo, the public’s appetite for quick and easy porridge has helped drive growth with value sales of Oat So Simple sachets increasing 44% over the last two years.
In addition to growth in the UK, Pepsi has also seen its oats exports rise by 18% over the past five years as demand for Quaker Oats increases in the Middle East.
Richard Evans, president of PepsiCo UK, Ireland & South Africa, said: “More and more people are eating porridge all year round and our investment at Cupar means we’ll be able to satisfy the increasing demand at home and abroad for years to come.
During a visit to the site, Prime minister David Cameron said: “Quaker and Scott’s Porage Oats have a long heritage here in the UK and PepsiCo’s further investment of £14.4m is a welcome example of its continued commitment to Cupar and to Britain.”
The investment announcement comes only 20 days after Pepsi announced it would be instigating a global cost saving scheme to save $1.5bn (£940m) over the next two years which would cost close to 9000 jobs. PepsiCo says the restructuring will offset high commodity costs and an increased spending on advertising and marketing.
