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Coca-Cola Amatil opens $57m bottle factory

Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) has opened a $57 million bottle preform and closure manufacturing site at Eastern Creek, New South Wales, bringing the company’s investment in bottling to $450 million.

The site will use injection moulding technology to manufacture plastic bottle closures (caps) and PET resin preforms that will be used to make PET plastic bottles at CCA’s other manufacturing sites in Australia and New Zealand.

The plant is situated within the Roussell Road, Eastern Creek site of the company’s $90 million automated distribution centre, which has won various awards for its use of sustainable manufacturing techniques.

The new site is reportedly the final “final stage in CCA’s vertical integration of its manufacturing facilities in Australia and New Zealand,” a notice from the company said.

CCA is now investing $450 million in bottle self-manufacture, or blow-fill technology across the Group.

“The technology enables the company to make its own bottles on production lines within its facilities. Preforms are fed into the blow-fill machines and bottles are blown to CCA’s specific design, enabling the company to produce the lightest weight beverage bottles in Australia,” the company said.

The site will initially produce 1.4 billion preforms and 1.4 billion closures per year, however there is room for expansion to meet future growth, CCA says.

The preforms and closures will be used in blow-fill production lines in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

Terry Davis, CCA’s Group Managing Director, said: “We are very pleased to be able to add this preform and closure facility to our significant investment in food and beverage manufacturing in Australia.

“This facility enables us to bring in-house all the intellectual property associated with innovation in design and light-weighting which was previously not exclusive to CCA. It also enables us to help reduce our carbon footprint because we are making bottles with approximately 20% less PET resin and reducing our need to transport preforms, closures and empty bottles from suppliers.

“As part of our Project Zero capital works program, this facility will help us deliver on our goal to develop the most efficient and customer-centric fast moving consumer goods supply chain in the country.” 

Image: CCA group managing director Terry Davis (right) and Mayor of Blacktown Alan Pendleton officially open the new site at Eastern Creek last Friday.

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