Coca-Cola bottling plant, China

The new Coca-Cola bottling plant in Luohe city, Henan province was opened in October 2010. It is the company's largest production facility in China. The plant is expected to commence Phase 1 operations in 2010 and will produce beverages such as Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta and Minute Maid.

The estimated investment for this phase on the plant is RMB900m ($132m). Construction for the second phase started in September 2011. The company is investing about RMB400m ($62m) in the second phase. It is expected to be complete by the end of 2012.
The project is expected to create more than 1,000 direct and 10,000 indirect job opportunities in the local area.

The Luohe bottling plant is the company's 41st production facility in China. It has been built as part of the its $2bn three-year accelerated investment plan in the country announced in 2009. The investment also included opening of a $90m innovation and research centre in Shanghai in March 2009.

The development was in carried out in coordination with the government's plan to develop central and western China, according to Coca-Cola. The company has also announced its plans to further invest $4bn in China between 2012 and 2014.

Project details

The Luohe facility occupies more than 320 acres and has total built-up area of 67,000m². The building meets the US Green Building Council's Gold Leadership in Energy and Environment (LEED) standards.

The building features energy and water conservation facilities such as solar energy and wind powered street lamps and rain water recycling for use in the toilets. It also houses a water treatment plant to save source water.

The plant will have seven production lines in total that will be completed in three phases. It will have a capacity of producing more than 100 million 20ft equivalent units (TEU) a year. The second phase will involve a total construction area of about 30,000m² of production area. It will include two sterile production lines as well as one for mineral water and a warehouse. Once the phase II is complete, the plant will have a capacity to produce 50 million standard containers a year.

Process

A bottle manufacturing site is selected only after the source water is tested for all requirements of potable water. These tests and analysis are conducted by an independent accredited lab.

The water is brought to the plants through sealed pipelines and stored in tanks which are placed in secured water treatment areas of the plants.

Coca-Cola beverage products are made up of syrup prepared from double refined sugar, purified water, carbonated soda and concentrate. Purified water is mixed with double refined sugar to create sugar syrup. Coca-Cola concentrate is added to the sugar syrup and then carbonated to create the fizz.

Packaging systems

The empty bottles returned from the market are first washed and rinsed with clean, filtered and purified water. The bottles are then soaked in a high temperature liquid to remove remaining dust particles. They are then sanitised using deep cleaning pressure spray. This process is called hydro wash.

The sanitised bottles are electronically checked and mechanically visualised by technicians. The tested bottles are loaded on to the automatic conveyors for filling. The conveyors allow exact filling and automatic sealing of each bottle to provide complete hygiene.

The bottles are labelled and data coded specifying the day, month, shift and plant in which the beverage is produced, before being packed in cartons for distribution in the market.

Coca-Cola Chinese market

Coca-Cola built its first plant in China in the decade following the First World War. It has ownership stake in most of its plants through two Hong Kong based joint ventures - Swire Beverages and Kerry Group. As of September 2010, the company has 39 manufacturing plants, of which two are under construction.

These include a bottling plant in Sanshui in Guangdong province and another in the Inner Mangolia Autonomous Region. The Sanshui plant became operational in 2011.

In 2009 the company opened three new plants, in Jiangxi province, Hubei province and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.