Soft drinks giant Coca-Cola Enterprises’ £227M boost

06-Mar-2014 - Last updated on 06-Mar-2014 at 16:06 GMT

CCE revealed research indicating it contributes more than £2.4bn to the GB economy annually

Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) will have invested £227M in its operations in Great Britain in the past four years, once it has injected a further £52M into the business this year.

Part of the latest cash boost would finance a combined heat and power (CHP) system at its factory in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, the company revealed in a breakfast briefing today (March 6).

It said it hoped the technology would mean the site would cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 1,500t every year, a 5.6% reduction in its total emissions.

Steve Adams, CCE group director of supply chain operations, told FoodManufacture.co.uk it hoped to roll out CHP systems, which use combustion engines to provide heating, hot water and electricity, to other UK plants.

Green investments

CCE was also focusing on several other green investments this year, including converting electric packaging machines at all its plants to gas, he said. “We have already converted five of our packers this year across almost all our plants. There are eight to be converted altogether.”

CCE’s 2014 UK budget would support the installation of a £19M production line at Wakefield dedicated to larger polyethylene terephthalate (PET) formats, including 1.25 and 1.75 litre bottles, Adams added.

And the completion of a £16.5M high-speed canning line at its Sidcup facility would be paid for with the earmarked money.

Doubling previous speed

The upgraded line would produce 150ml mini cans and 250ml slim-line cans, doubling its previous speed from 57,600 to 120,000 cans an hour. “That won’t start up until the back end of this year,” said Adams.

Other investments in the past three years have included a £30M automated warehouse in Wakefield, which CCE claimed had cut 500,000 miles off the distance travelled by trucks in its supply chain.

News of the £52M package coincided with research revealed by CCE indicating that every pound generated by the company supported the creation of an additional £8 elsewhere in the British economy.

More than £2.4bn

That equated to a contribution of more than £2.4bn annually to the GB economy in salaries, taxes and profits, Professor Ethan Kapstein, who helped lead the research, claimed.

According to the socio-economic impact assessment, led by Kapstein, visiting fellow at the Centre for Global Development in Washington, CCE’s business supported 34,500 skilled British jobs in industries including transport, hospitality and retail.

CCE md Simon Baldry added: “At CCE we are proud to be a truly local business with 97% of our products made at our six factories across Great Britain.”