The Coca-Cola Company on Friday announced in China’s Inner Mongolia the opening and near completion of three new bottling plants in China worth a combined CNY1.6 billion (USD 240 million), continuing its rapid expansion in one of the world’s largest and fastest growing beverage markets.
The new investments are a part of Coca-Cola’s 3-year USD2 billion accelerated investment in China. The investment is also aligned with the Chinese government’s call to develop the central and western areas of the country. The plants in Inner Mongolia’s Hohhot, Luohe in Henan Province and Sanshui in Guangdong Province will locally produce beverages such as Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, and Minute Maid to serve consumers in those regions.
The bottling plant in Inner Mongolia’s Hohhot is the 41st Coca-Cola bottling plant in China. Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent visited Luohe to inaugurate the new bottling plant in that city one day before the opening of Hohhot plant. It will be the largest Coca-Cola production facility in China and will begin production in November 2010. The Sanshui plant is also scheduled to commence production by the end of 2010.
"Our business has experienced strong growth year on year in China, which is now our third largest market. More importantly, the new plants in Inner Mongolia, Henan and Guangdong, will extend our competitive edge in China and allow Coca-Cola to support local community development by providing jobs, generating tax revenue and boosting further investment in the local economy by Coca-Cola suppliers," said Kent.
These new facilities will augment Coca-Cola’s strategic footprint in China, with the Luohe investment alone worth CNY900m. The three plants together will directly create 2,000 additional new jobs in the local communities and approximately 20,000 additional indirect employment opportunities in the supporting industries.