Coca-Cola to invest €28 million in Ghent facility

Coca-Cola European Partners has announced an investment of €28 million in its manufacturing facility in Ghent. The plant was established in the south of the city exactly 50 years.

The US-based multinational drinks producer invested some €75 million in the same plant three years ago while simultaneously eliminating about 40 of the plant’s 440 jobs. The latest investment will go towards a new aluminium can production line for Coca-Cola, which will join the two already in use. The Ghent facility also has a glass bottle Coke production line and two lines for fruit juice.

The Coca-Cola facility, one of seven in Belgium, produced nearly 210 million litres of products last year, which increased to 227 million this year. Some 150 trucks haul the products from the site to distribution facilities every day.

The €103 million total investment in the plant over four years goes hand-in-hand, the company said, with sustainability goals. “By 2025, we want every plastic bottle that we put on the market to be made from 50% recycling plastic,” said Etienne Gossart, the director of the Coca-Cola Belgium-Luxembourg division.

Flemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois took a tour of the Ghent facility yesterday. “The government of Flanders committed to collect and recycle 95% of all household drink packaging by 2025,” he said. “By encouraging a change in mentality together, we are working towards a cleaner Flanders.”

Photo: Belga