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BENGALURU: Bengaluru: Beverage giant PepsiCo is setting up one of its largest business services hubs in Hyderabad. The company has taken up 3.8-lakh square feet of space in IT SEZ Laxmi Infobahn, and the plan is to hire 2,500 people over the next three years, sources said.

The facility will be PepsiCo’s largest outside the US and will represent a variety of business functions including consumer insights, marketing, HR, finance, supply chain and operations, and digital solutions. The company plans to formally open the centre later this year. The maker of Lays and Quaker Oats is said to have already hired 200 people. Former Genpact executive Priyaranjan Jha has been appointed the site leader. He spent over 14 years at Genpact in different roles, the last of which was as senior vice president in charge of robotic process automation .

When TOI contacted PepsiCo, the company’s spokesperson confirmed the establishment of the centre. “We have a long and proud history in India where we have operated locally for 30 years. We are excited to expand our presence in one of PepsiCo’s largest global markets by establishing a business service hub in Hyderabad. We will officially open this new office later this year, and will continue to hire India’s high calibre talent to join our team. This effort furthers our public commitment made in November 2017 to create new jobs and invest $2.1 billion by 2022 in the country,” he said.

The India business services centre will be part of a planned multi-location global capability strategy, sources said. Earlier this year, Pepsico roped in Mattijs Backx from Japan Tobacco International as senior VP and head of global business services. Jha will report to him.

In its latest investor presentation, PepsiCo said how it was optimising its entire business and pursuing savings through global business services, as also its operating model, marketplace execution, tech utilisation, optimised network and real estate.

PepsiCo currently has over 100 openings in Hyderabad across various job portals and networking platforms. The company has openings for roles like agile coach, web solutions architect, corporate finance specialist and lead engineer. Several job profiles have a detailed description that talks about how the Hyderabad centre will play a significant role in the delivery of IT services across all five of PepsiCo’s global capability teams: chief technology office, global IT operations, global information security, global development and delivery, and strategy, planning & transformation.

India hosts the largest number of global capability centres (GCCs) of MNCs. These are centres that consolidate many of the business functions and provide IT services. Many are increasingly creating cutting edge technology platforms to make internal services run better, and provide insights and tech platforms to improve customer experience and business. Many of the world’s biggest banks and retail companies have centres in India, and so do companies in automotive, consumer electronics, aerospace and energy.

Sources said Bengaluru-based ANSR Consulting, which specialises in helping Fortune 500 companies to set up captive centres in the country, is helping PepsiCo in establishing the Hyderabad centre. However, calls and messages to ANSR founder and CEO Lalit Ahuja did not elicit a response till the time of going to press. Among the over 40 GCCs that ANSR has brought to India are Target, Wells Fargo, Lowe’s and Limited Brands (owner of the Victoria’s Secret brand). ANSR provides end-to-end solutions across the GCC lifecycle, including strategy/business consulting, and infrastructure design & build-out services.

