China: Coca-Cola opens new bottling plant

China: Coca-Cola opens new bottling plant

Multinational beverage firm Coca-Cola has announced that its 44th facility in China has begun operations in Changsha, central China.

According to COFCO Coca-Cola Huazhong Beverages, the plant is the largest in Central China and is prepared to have nine production lines: four for water, four for sparkling beverages, and one for juice and juice drinks. Only four of these lines are currently operational but all of them are planned to be running by 2020.

Muhtar Kent, Coca-Cola chairman and CEO, said: "China is our third-largest market by volume, and we remain upbeat about the potential for growth throughout the market. Over the past few years, China’s consumer market has undergone significant structural change and we have continued to invest and adapt to ensure we are best serving our consumers and customers in a fast-changing market".

The bottling plant is the first of Coca-Cola’s in Hunan that produces non-sparkling drinks and has an estimated annual production capacity of 1 billion litres.

To build the new plant, Coca-Cola invested 320 million CNY ($41 million).

Source: Coca Cola