COFCO Coca-Cola opened its 45th bottling facility in Xianghe, Hebei Province, North China, in December 2017.
COFCO Coca-Cola is a subsidiary of holding company COFCO Corporation and The Coca-Cola Company’s Chinese bottling partner.
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Ground-breaking for the $56m bottling plant was held in August 2015, with construction works completed in two years. The new plant was built as a part of Coca-Cola’s $4bn investment planned between 2014 and 2017 in China, which is in addition to the $9bn investment made between 1979 and 2014.
The new world-class plant intends to serve the growing demand for Coca-Cola’s products in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area.
Completion of the 45th plant follows the recent opening of the Coca-Cola’s 44th facility in China in April 2017. Built with an investment of $41m, the 44th facility features nine production lines including four lines to package water, four lines for sparkling beverages, and one for juice and juice drinks.
Bottling plant in Hebei Province, south-east of Beijing
The new bottling facility is sited in the Xianghe county of the Hebei Province located south-east of Beijing.
The location offers unique logistics and environmental advantages, which are expected to boost Coca-Cola’s beverage business in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei regions.
Details of Coca-Cola 45th bottling plant
The new Coca-Cola plant is built on a 200-acre site and has a built-up area of 65,000m². It is equipped with state-of-the-art production equipment and technology, which include a scientific and strict management system.
The plant is designed to accommodate nine advanced production lines with an annual capacity of 250 million unit cases of sparkling and still beverages.
The first phase of the project will add four production lines with a capacity of 100 million unit cases a year. Three production lines have been installed initially, while additional bottling lines are planned to be added to increase the production of other beverage categories.
Soft drink bottling plant in Hebei Province, China
The existing production lines will bottle Coca-Cola’s Ice Dew flavoured water, Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta and other products.
Ice Dew was launched in 2001 in China and includes two varieties, mineralised and purified. Another variant is the Ice Dew Chun Yue, which was launched in 2014. The brand is among the top 20 brands marketed by Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola, Sprite and Fanta are among the most popular soft drink brands in China.
Sustainable features of Coca-Cola’s 45th bottling plant in China
The 45th bottling plant is designed to have a low-carbon impact on the environment. A number of green features such as clean energy use and recycling of resources have been incorporated in the plant.
Furthermore, the plant features water recycling and solar energy storage to further reduce its environmental impact.
Marketing commentary on Coca-Cola’s Chinese operations
Coca-Cola has been operating in China for more than 35 years, while the country is the third biggest and fastest growing markets for the company. The company now has 45 plants in China, which produce ten different brands and 50 different flavours of beverage.
The growth of the Chinese market has led Coca-Cola to continually invest in developing new products along with launching innovative campaigns to increase its market growth.
The Global Innovation and Technical Centre located in Shanghai is Coca-Cola’s second biggest innovative centre in the world and the biggest in Asia. Minute Maid Pulpy was first developed at the centre and launched in China, and became a billion-dollar brand of Coca-Cola in just five years, and was followed by the launch of Coca-Cola’s first dairy product Minute Maid Pulpy Super Milky.
The Coca-Cola Company’s local bottling partners include COFCO Coca-Cola Beverages, Swire Beverages, and Coca-Cola Bottling Investments Group China.
