Britvic invested £25m in updating the 30-year-old facility, which supplies national and international customers with brands including Robinsons, Tango and J2O.
After £5m was committed to the site over the last three years, Britvic invested a further £20m to fund significant improvements and updates to the technical systems and facilities necessary for efficient warehouse and logistical operations.
The site now has 17 new automatic cranes, 18 despatch lanes to load lorries from and 20 automated cars to transport pallets around the warehouse – with the capacity to move 600 pallets an hour from the warehouse to its customers.
During a normal year, 75,000 trucks distribute 1.9m pallets to more than 900 locations from the distribution centre’s security gatehouse, with this number set to grow thanks to the added pallet capacity.
New office and meeting spaces have also been added to better accommodate the 80 people employed at the centre.
The announcement comes shortly after it was announced that Carlsberg had agreed to acquire Britvic in a deal worth £3.3bn. Shareholders in the soft drink firm will vote on the deal at the company’s AGM later this month.
‘Cutting-edge facility’
“I am delighted that we have completed the renovation of our national distribution centre in Lutterworth,” said Nigel Paine, supply chain director at Britvic.
“This cutting-edge facility enables us to continue offering our customers the wide range of Britvic products they love, while also providing our employees with a dynamic work environment that supports their best performance."
Britvic invested a further £40m in its Rugby factory over the past two years, which has seen the installation of a fifth canning line at the factory. It also spent £8m on a heat recovery system at its Beckton factory in London, cutting factory emissions by an estimated 1,200 tonnes annually.
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