Coca-Cola Amatil has opened its largest Australian manufacturing plant in Brisbane, with capacity to produce more than 90 million cases of drinks each year for national and export markets.
Premier of Queensland, Hon Annastacia Palaszczuk officially opened the $165m expansion of Coca-Cola Amatil’s Richlands facility yesterday, which includes a state-of-the-art 30,000-square metre Distribution Centre.
The site will be the exclusive Australian bottling and distribution centre for Coke’s century-old “contour” glass bottles. It will also make all of Amatil’s Australian dairy range, including Australia’s Barista Brothers drinks, and continue to export Barista Brothers and Powerade to New Zealand.
The expanded facility will mean lower operating costs, reduced materials handling and fewer local truck movements. With encouraging signs in revenue and volume sales, the new site delivers a substantial increase in bottling capacity.
Group Managing Director of Coca-Cola Amatil, Alison Watkins, said the company was proud to be a local manufacturer and distributor, and to have headquartered so much of its production in Richlands.
“This site was selected after a nationwide review which identified that we needed to modernise and invest to maintain competitiveness in the market,” Watkins said at the opening.
“Of all the locations we looked at, Richlands offered the strongest combination of road and port access, efficiency in production, access to east-coast markets and room to grow. We also had great engagement with the Queensland Government, which was keen to support manufacturing investment and jobs.
“It’s great to call this site home, and we’ll be looking to grow local production even further over time.”
The site includes a SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) system, which increases visibility of operations and better matches supply with demand.
A new glass production line at the site has already been commissioned, with expanded dairy capability to come online by Q2 2019.
