MANILA, Philippines--Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines Inc. plans to expand its production capacity in Mindanao and shift to renewable sources of energy.

On the sidelines of the company?s annual stockholders meeting Wednesday, PCPPI chair and president Mickey Yong said the company had set aside P500 million for this new fiscal year ending June 2010 to expand capacity outside Luzon.

?Last year, we expanded in Iloilo and Central Luzon. This year, our capacity expansion will be in Mindanao,? Yong said.

The company produces about 170 million raw cases of beverage and the P500-million expansion in Mindanao is expected to beef up its production capacity by six million raw cases.

About 80 percent of the company?s business still comes from the sale of carbonated drinks like Pepsi, 7-Up, Mountain Dew and Mirinda, but the noncarbonated business has been growing at a much faster clip of 30 percent each year, said PCPPI senior vice president for manufacturing and logistics Daniel Gregorio.

Among its noncarbonated products are Lipton Red tea, Tropicana, Gatorade, Sting energy drink and Propel Vitamin water.

PCPPI has also committed to shift to renewable sources of energy. Within five years, it seeks to have independent power-generating facilities running on renewable energy?such as biomass, solar, wind and biogas?in each of its 11 manufacturing plants across the country.

With these facilities, the company?s energy costs could go down by at least 20 percent, Gregorio said. Doris C. Dumlao