Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) has announced plans to open a new £20 million line at its Edmonton factory in north London to increase production of its most sustainable products.
The capital brings the company’s total investment programme to £150 million into its operations in Great Britain this year.
Featuring highly energy efficient machinery and robotic packers, the new production line will make bag-in-box products. These will contain concentrate that food service and licensed operators will mix with carbonated water to dispense draught soft drinks to their customers.
The new format requires no consumer packaging and less water, providing a more sustainable way to deliver soft drinks. According to the bottling subsidiary, the move will save the equivalent of 48,400 tonnes of C02.
The development supports the company’s portfolio of drinks sustainably, providing a greater choice of products and packs, as well as providing learning opportunities for CCEP employees through the creation of new technical roles, as well as upskilling existing teams across all levels.
CCEP’s recent investment follows several announcements made this year, as part of the bottlers ongoing multi-year investment programme, which has reached a total of £650 million since 2010 in Great Britain.
As part of its sustainability action plan, significant investments have been made in the production lines at its Wakefield, Sidcup and East Kilbride plants to allow operation in the most sustainable way.
This has included a £40 million investment at its Wakefield and Sidcup sites to open two canning production lines dedicated to manufacturing CCEP’s latest lightweight cans.
In addition, a £39 million automated storage and retrieval system warehouse has opened at its Sidcup factory, which CCEP claims will save over 10,000 road miles by HGV trucks and almost 4,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
Finally, a £15 million investment at its Wakefield site forms part of a wider initiative to replace the use of plastic shrink-wrap across all multipacks of cans across Great Britain with 100% cardboard, in a move that will see 4,000 tonnes of plastic removed from across Europe.
Leendert den Hollander, VP and general manager of CCEP, said: “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.”
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