The French bottler of the famous soft drink, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) France, will invest more than 100 million euros to modernize its Grigny factory in Essonne, it announced Wednesday.
New warehouse, greater storage capacity…
This entity, which produces, bottles and markets the US giant’s soft drinks in France, wants to “increase storage capacity, optimize manufacturing processes and modernize the infrastructure of the facility” built in 1986, the largest in the territory.
“It is a factory that no longer has the chance to grow, with strong operational constraints. We need to invest to ensure that it is modernized and that it can house new production lines,” its director general, François Gay-Bellie, told AFP. .
With this investment of 114 million euros, a new entrepôt will be built for stocker les bouteilles, the interior of the site will be reaménagé, and the “syroperie”, où est élaboré le sirop à la base du Coca-Cola, devrait monter en production capacity.
Coca-Cola turns green
In addition, the consumption of these drinks (Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fuze Tea, etc.) “is increasing around 3% per year, so at some point we will reach full capacity of the site,” he added.
3,500 square meters of photovoltaic panels are to be deployed “to switch to electricity”.
In April, the city of Grigny had asked Coca-Cola to stop extracting water from the groundwater table to produce its drinks, stressing the preservation of the natural environment.
At the end of April an “agreement in principle” was reached between the municipality and the company. The latter says he wants to “diversify” the source of the water he uses, which could imply a connection to the city’s public distribution network.
At this stage, “discussions are continuing” to formalize this agreement, said François Gay-Bellile.
CCEP France hopes to start its work during the summer, without interrupting the activity of the factory that produces 600 million liters a year. They should last until “early 2025”.
At the 2020 “Choose France” summit, US giant Coca-Cola and its bottler in France announced they wanted to invest up to 1 billion euros over five years in the country.
CCEP France employs 2,500 people in France and has five factories in the territory.
Source: BFM TV
