Soft drink production Ivi (box packaging) returns to Greece six years after final decision PepsiCo-Ivy stop its production in our country. From next spring, probably from the beginning of May, soft drinks under the Ivi brand will be produced on behalf of the company by a well-known Greek soft drink industry EPSA, under a three-year contract. To start production, it remains to install some additional equipment at the EPSA plant in Agria Volos, as well as carry out the necessary tests.

“The choice of EPSA by the multinational giant is undoubtedly a reward for our company’s manufacturing process,” Michalis Tsautos said “Kathimerini”., CEO of the Volio soft drink industry. He pointed out that in this way the factory naturally benefits not only from income, but also from the continuous operation of the machines. However, he stressed that the partnership with PepsiCo Hellas does not, under any circumstances, mean that EPSA is becoming a third-party company. It is noted that the only cooperation of this kind that EPSA has had so far has been with the Masoutis supermarket chain.

The cooperation only concerns the production of Ivi soft drinks in a box, which are basically the following five codes: orange soda, still orange soda, lemonade, soda, lemon soda. In parallel with the move to Greece, PepsiCo Hellas will also begin a visual redesign of the Ivi packaging (new updated packaging) as well as re-formulating the orange with a new flavor that is closer to the taste preferences of Greek consumers. The agreement does not cover the production of Ivi juices or Ivi soft drinks in plastic bottles, nor does it include the production of Pepsi and 7Up soft drinks.

Production returns to Greece. They will be manufactured by EPSA on behalf of PepsiCo-Ivi.

ibi juices are manufactured in Greece by the Sparta industry, while Ivi brand soft drinks in plastic bottles are manufactured outside of Greece, mainly in facilities in Romania and Poland. Outside of Greece, with the exception of some of them produced in Rhodes by VAP Kougios, soft drinks are also produced under the brands Pepsi and Ivi.

Recall that in October 2016, PepsiCo-Ivi announced the closure of its Oinofit soft drink plant, which had been operating since 1998 and was the central production unit of the multinational group in Greece. The closure of the Loutraki water bottling plant preceded the closure in 2013, while the operation of another PepsiCo subsidiary in Greece, Tasty Foods, which has a snack plant in Agios Stefanos, Attica, remained unchanged.

The Loutraki plant was back in operation last summer after being acquired by NU Aqua, which is in the process of making a major investment in Loutraki to take over PepsiCo’s soft drink production in its next phase.