PepsiCo to open a digital hub in Barcelona with 80 employees
The company, which already has offices in Cornellà de Llobregat, wants to reach 500 employees by 2024
BarcelonaA new multinational, this time in the food sector, will focus part of its efforts in digital transformation in Barcelona. ARA has learnt that US giant PepsiCo will open a new tech hub at the end of the month in the Catalan capital, which will focus on the application of new technologies to the group's current challenges. The facilities will have a staff of 80 workers for the moment, but the intention is to give the initiative more weight and approach 500 employees by 2024. Company spokesmen would not confirm this news.
PepsiCo is already present in Catalonia with offices in Cornellà de Llobregat. In addition, at the end of 2020 the company took another step linked to digitisation in Barcelona: they signed an agreement to become a global partner of the Tech Barcelona association, one of the mainstays of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the city. The director of PepsiCo's food category in Southwest Europe, Iker Ganzua, highlighted the company's desire to "work closely with those who bring innovation to be able to apply it" to its business at a time of many changes for the group.
The executive already advanced PepsiCo's will to improve in areas such as management and intensive use of data, the integration of artificial intelligence and 3D printing. Last year the company appointed Athina Kanioura as its first ever vice president of digital transformation in order to focus on big data and innovation and also to optimise costs.
Catalan CEO
PepsiCo is the manufacturer responsible for the iconic soft drink, but also for crisp brands Lay's and Doritos, Alvalle gazpachos or Lipton cold teas. Since 2018 the company has had a Catalan CEO, Barcelona-born Ramon Laguarta, who succeeded Indian executive Indra Nooyi and has been working for the multinational for more than two decades. Before his promotion, he had been the number 2 worldwide and CEO of the division for Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. Earlier today, PepsiCo's General Manager for Southwest Europe, Narcís Roura, was in Barcelona to explain the company's environmental strategy.
With the launch of this new hub, PepsiCo replicates the move already made by competitors in the FMCG sector such as Nestlé, which in 2016 implemented its global digital services center in Barcelona and has been concentrating all its technological development in the Catalan capital.
