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Coca-Cola European Partners invests £20m at Edmonton Factory
Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) is opening a new £20m line at its Edmonton factory in North London to increase production of its most sustainable products.
The investment forms part of CCEP’s £150m investment programme into its operations in Great Britain (GB) this year.
The production line will make Bag-in-Box products, which contain concentrate for food service and licensed operators to mix with carbonated water to dispense draught soft drinks to their customers. With no consumer packaging and less water, the format is a sustainable way to deliver soft drinks – saving the equivalent of 48,400 tonnes of CO2. The new line features energy efficient machinery and state-of-the-art robotic packers.
Coca-Cola European Partners has opened a new £20m line at its Edmonton factory, bringing the total investment in Great Britain this year to a staggering £150m / Picture: Coca-Cola European Partners
It is one of a number of announcements made this year, as part of CCEP’s ongoing multi-year investment programme – reaching a total of £650m since 2010 in GB. The investment programme has continued to increase CCEP’s capacity and capabilities to service customers efficiently and support its portfolio of drinks sustainably, providing a greater choice of products and packs. At the same time, the new investment has provided learning and development opportunities for CCEP employees through the creation of new technical roles and apprenticeships, as well as upskilling existing teams across all levels.
2019 has also seen a record level of investment at its Wakefield, Sidcup and East Kilbride operations. This has included significant investment in the business’ production lines to operate in the most sustainable way possible, supporting CCEP’s sustainability action plan, This is Forward.
This has included energy savings across new lines from a combination of technologies including automatic control of conveyors and energy sub-metering, as well as water reduction achieved by air-rinsing cans and dry lubrication on conveyors. This comes in addition to a £10m new state-of-the-art process plant, which will regulate processes across lines and help to reduce water and energy usage.
A £15m investment at the business’ Wakefield site also forms part of a wider initiative to end the use of plastic shrink-wrap across all multipacks of cans across GB with 100% cardboard. This move will see 4,000 tonnes of plastic removed from across Europe.
A combined investment of £40m at its Wakefield and Sidcup sites has supported the opening of two new canning production lines – dedicated to making CCEP’s latest lightweight cans, ranging in size from 330ml to 550ml.
A new £39m automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) warehouse has opened at CCEP’s Sidcup factory, saving over 10,000 road miles by HGV trucks and almost 4,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. As part of this, CCEP has a dedicated ASRS team on site, consisting of eight existing employees who were retrained as part of the upskilling programme to see them become part of the ASRS team.
A £23m investment at the business’ East Kilbride site includes two new bespoke state-of-the-art robotic multi-pack fillers, featuring water efficient pouch cooling technology and the use of lighter cardboard boxes for Capri-Sun. The investment also supports the creation of 18 roles and additional investment to upskill the 170-strong workforce at the site.
CCEP has also invested £1m into its apprenticeship scheme, which has accelerated by 50% over last two years, with over 75 recruits across field sales and manufacturing.
Leendert den Hollander, vice-president and general manager at Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP), said: “At CCEP, we are proud to be a truly local business, making globally recognised products right here in Great Britain. We are committed to investing for the future, increasing the scale of our investments in new technologies and efficient processes, as well as investing in and supporting our people to ensure they’re continuing to grow, learn and develop in line with new technologies and systems. Supporting manufacturing excellence across the country, in a way that is as productive, efficient and sustainable as possible is core to our business in GB.”