SABRA DIPPING COMPANY OPENS THE DOORS TO NEW MANUFACTURING PLANT AND NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN VIRGINIA

With Stat-of-the-Art, “Green” Facility, Sabra and Co-owners Strauss Group and PepsiCo, Signal Readiness for Strong Growth in Refrigerated Dips and Spreads

Colonial Heights, VA (May 26, 2010) – In a celebratory ceremony attended by the Governor of Virginia, the Honorable Bob McDonnell, Indra Nooyi, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo and Ofra Strauss, Chairperson of Strauss Group, Sabra Dipping Company (www.sabra.com) officially opened its new manufacturing plant in Colonial Heights, Virginia. Sabra is a market leader in the category of refrigerated dips and spreads and the maker of the country’s best selling hummus. The facility immediately more than doubles Sabra’s manufacturing capacity, while minimizing its impact on the environment. In fact, it is expected to qualify as one of the only food-processing factories to achieve Silver certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification program. “We are thrilled to celebrate this incredible milestone in Sabra’s history with our partners and our new neighbors,” said Ronen Zohar, chief executive officer of Sabra Dipping Company.

Sabra, which leads the hummus category in sales, first broke ground on the plant in January 2009. The new facility will create approximately 260 jobs in Chesterfield County once it is fully operational.  Sabra worked with experts in the areas of sustainability and manufacturing to identify the best practices. In several areas, Sabra’s team developed customized solutions to ensure the integrity of product, kitchen-fresh feel and to enable capabilities for anticipated growth. As such, the completed factory is a model of innovation featuring multiple advancements in fresh food production.  Since the Company’s launch in 1986, Sabra has grown to become the number one hummus company, leading its category in innovation and sales.  The new plant will serve as the production and distribution center to more than 40,000 stores across the U.S. and Canada.

“Sabra is an important growth engine for Strauss Group in North America,” said Giyora Bar Dea, chief executive officer for Strauss North America. 

 “Given our strong partnership with PepsiCo, the incredible potential for Sabra which already leads its category in the US, and our expertise in the areas of fresh and healthy food production, we were proud to invest further in this venture to establish a plant with the most advanced production technologies available today.  We feel that Sabra is now in an excellent position to continue to grow its category and provide a comprehensive and innovative response to the growing demand for healthy dips and spreads.”

“PepsiCo and Frito-Lay entered the Sabra joint venture because of the synergies with our health and wellness strategy and the growth potential in the healthier dips category,” said Al Carey, president and chief executive officer for Frito-Lay North America, a division of PepsiCo.  “This new state of the art facility demonstrates our commitment and positions Sabra for continued success as consumers seek healthier snack options.”

Visit Sabra at www.sabra.com, on Twitter at www.twitter.com/sabra and on facebook at www.facebook.com/sabra.

Strauss Group, Israel’s second-largest Food & Beverage Company, is today an international corporation with around 13,000 global employees operating twenty two production sites in twenty countries. In the last six years the Group has consistently achieved growth, generating around $1.62 billion in turnover at the end of 2009, of which 47% came from international activities.

The Strauss Group is comprised of four core business units: Strauss Israel, Strauss Coffee, Strauss North America and Strauss Water. The Group is a leading player in coffee markets in Central and Eastern Europe, Brazil and Israel for Roast & Ground (R&G) coffee and other coffee related products and services.

Strauss Group is traded on the Tel Aviv 25 Index, which lists the largest public  companies in Israel and has achieved a top AA+ credit rating from Maalot, an affiliation of Standard and Poor’s. Strauss Group is in partnership with leading multinationals Danone and PepsiCo; and Strauss Coffee recently entered into a partnership with TPG Capital, a leading private equity fund. Learn more about Strauss Group at the Web site, www.strauss-group.com.

 Frito-Lay North America is the $13 billion convenient foods business unit of PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), which is headquartered in Purchase, NY.

Learn more about Frito-Lay at the corporate Web site, www.fritolay.com, the Snack Chat blog, www.snacks.com and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/fritolay.

 PepsiCo offers the world's largest portfolio of billion-dollar food and beverage brands, including 19 different product lines that each generates more than $1 billion in annual retail sales.

Our main businesses - Frito-Lay, Quaker, Pepsi-Cola, Tropicana and Gatorade - also make hundreds of other nourishing, tasty foods and drinks that bring joy to our consumers in more than 200 countries. With annualized revenues of nearly $60 billion, PepsiCo's people are united by our unique commitment to sustainable growth, called Performance with Purpose. By dedicating ourselves to offering a broad array of choices for healthy, convenient and fun nourishment, reducing our environmental impact, and fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace culture, PepsiCo balances strong financial returns with giving back to our communities worldwide.

In recognition of its continued sustainability efforts, PepsiCo was named for the third time to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI World) and for the fourth time to the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index (DJSI North America) in 2009. For more information, please visit www.pepsico.com