Minister officially opens and commends new Coca-Cola £3m investment

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

The Coca-Cola Enterprises factory in East Kilbride today opened a new, more efficient production line following an investment of three million pounds by the soft drinks manufacturer.
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, Richard Lochhead, opened the new line today. It produces Coca-Cola, Fanta, Dr Pepper and Sprite amongst other products, and has increased the rate of production by 8,000 bottles an hour - nearly one third.

CCE has also announced today the measures planned to completely eliminate 'waste to landfill' at the CCE East Kilbride factory by the end of 2011. These include investing in the recycling facility on the CCE East Kilbride site as well as partnership with a waste contractor.

CCE's East Kilbride Operations Director Jim Duddy said

"Currently about 93% of the factory waste is recycled and our teams are completely focused on improving our waste avoidance, each day, and at every step in our process".

Mr. Lochhead commented:

"We welcome and appreciate the substantial investments, efforts and commitment being made by Coca Cola on recycling and wider sustainability issues. The Scottish Government aspires to Scotland becoming a Zero Waste society and it is encouraging to see a global name like Coca-Cola taking active long-term measures to tackle the problem of waste and move forward on recycling.

"I am suitably impressed that CCE aim to re-use or re-cycle 100% of their waste by 2011 of their own accord. I am therefore delighted to open the new production line and commend Coca Cola for working towards Zero Waste."

The Scottish team has a strong track record of innovation. At East Kilbride they have been leading change within the soft drinks industry over many years. They are seen as a global R&D facility for the Coke System (The Coca-Cola System in GB consists of Coca-Cola Great Britain (CCGB) and its bottling partner, Coca-Cola Enterprises) and were the first Coca-Cola factory worldwide to manufacture the 500ml plastic bottle. Today, the 'washing' of new empty bottles before they are filled, which has traditionally been done using water, now uses blasts of ionized air, reducing the amount of water used in the production process.

Notes to editors

1. Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd (CCE) is a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc, the world's largest marketer, producer and distributor of the products of The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC). Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd manufactures and distributes TCCC products, as well as products for other brand-owners, throughout England, Scotland and Wales, and employs around 4,600 people.

2. Energy saving and efficiency measures underline the importance CCE attaches to being a more sustainable and environmentally conscious business. The key areas of focus are around sustainable packaging, water stewardship, and energy and climate protection. Recent achievements include:·

• Lightweighting all drinks packaging - glass, PET and cans - using less materials and reducing the carbon footprint of the overall product in the process.·
• Reducing the ratio of water used to create one litre of product by more than 21% since 2001.·
• Constantly building on the amount of recycled content used in packaging - 50% in aluminium, 30% in glass and a commitment to incorporate 25% recycled plastic by the end of 2010.·
• Recycling/recovering within the production process - across all sites in GB on average 97% is recycled/recovered.

Contact: Iona MacPherson : 0131 244 5193/ 07917 588 521