The Coca-Cola Co has opened its latest bottling plant in China, the soft drinks company's 45th in the country.
Coca-Cola's plant will produce beverages including glass bottled Coca-Cola
The new plant, in North China's Hebei province, was inaugurated last week in a ceremony attended by Coca-Cola's CEO, James Quincey. The site represents a CNY500m (US$75.6m) investment and was built with Coca-Cola's China partner COFCO Coca-Cola Huabei Beverages.
"This is another great milestone in the history of cooperation between The Coca-Cola Company and COFCO," Quincey said. "As the world's third-largest market for Coca-Cola, China represents a significant opportunity for us. We will continue to work together with COFCO to create more beverage choices for Chinese consumers through continuous innovation."
The plant is Coca-Cola's largest in North China and will produce products including bottled water Ice Dew as well as glass-bottled Coca-Cola, Sprite and Fanta. Construction began in 2015, with Coca-Cola saying at the time that capacity for the site would be 250m unit cases a year.
Ice Dew is a bottled water brand mainly sold in the Chinese market. Last year, Coca-Cola announced that Ice Dew had joined an elite group in its portfolio after making more than US$1bn in sales in 2015.
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Sectors: Soft drinks, Water
Companies: The Coca-Cola Company
