Global food and beverage giant PepsiCo today said it will hire 500 people in

RELATED ARTICLES Tata Global, PepsiCo JV eyes Rs 700 crore turnover by 2016 PepsiCo to cut 8,700 jobs, invest in brands PepsiCo, Coke get ready for summer; announce new initiatives PepsiCo launches Lay's Baked, to expand health portfolio PepsiCo finds trace fungicide in orange juice

India this year to meet its manpower requirement for maintaining its annual growth rate of over 30 per cent in 2010.

"To keep pace with our high growth, we would need to keep on adding top talent to our already fantastic team. We plan to hire 500 more this year and take the number of direct employees to 5,500," PepsiCo India Executive Director (Human Resources) Pavan Bhatia told PTI.

He said hiring is aimed at meeting HR requirements to sustain the growth achieved in 2009, which proved a "banner year for us with a volume growth of over 30 per cent".

The company, however, did not share the absolute sales volumes in India.

Bhatia said PepsiCo India, which completes 20 years in 2010, provides direct employment to 5000 and indirect employment to more than 1,50,000 people.

Asked about PepsiCo's well-recorded talent hunt from India for its international operations, Bhatia said: "At present more than 75 people from PepsiCo India have been assigned key international assignments across the world."

Earlier this month, PepsiCo India’s foods division's (FritoLay) head Gautham Mukkavilli was assigned for a leading role in the company's global team. He will take over as PepsiCo's global vice-president for grain nutrition at its Chicago-based nutrition centre in July.

PepsiCo's Global Chief Indra Nooyi is also of Indian origin.