Dubai Refreshments Company (DRC), the sole franchisee and distributor of PepsiCo products in Dubai and Northern Emirates, said it has opened the largest distribution centre to meet the growing demand for its products.

Strategically located in Al Quoz Industrial Area 2, the new warehouse covers 145,000 sq ft with storage capacity for 550,000 cases, and a daily loading capacity of 150,000 cases.

With the addition of this new warehouse, DRC now has a total storage capacity of 1,470,000 cases across all warehouses in the UAE, the DRC said in a statement.

"The new warehouse is a good testimony to strength of DRC's business, as we expand in local and export markets," said Ahmed Bin Essa Al Serkal, DRC chairman, while speaking at the launch ceremony in the presence of board members and management.

"This addition will effectively double our storage and dispatching capacity, and will significantly improve our customer response time. With the popularity of our products leading to a sharp increase in demand, we are now very much prepared to service this demand with the necessary infrastructure," he noted.

"This new facility is part of a substantial strategic investment plan, which in addition includes the expansion of our production facility at a new purpose built new mega site at Dubai Investment Park by 2012," Al Serkal added.

The new Al Quoz center will be servicing the whole of Dubai and export operations while Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujeirah will continue to be serviced by existing depots in the respective emirates, the statement said.-TradeArabia News Service