FDBusiness.com

UK-based soft drinks company Britvic will create about 80 new jobs at its manufacturing site in Rugby and invest in three new production lines at the site. The newly created jobs include technical operators, engineers and team leaders. The site currently employs 176 people.

Britvic is investing more than £100 milllion in the Rugby site, as part of a broader £240 million three-year investment programme in Great Britain designed to step-change the company’s manufacturing capability. As part of the investment in Rugby, Britvic has recently installed three new can lines, and groundworks have started for a new on-site warehouse and aseptic line (which manufactures preservative-free drinks) which will improve logistics planning and reduce road miles, helping the company to reduce its carbon footprint.

The new can lines are amongst the fastest in the Europe, collectively producing 6,000 cans per minute. The state-of-the-art design has led to a reduction in waste, significantly increased production, and gives greater flexibility meaning cans can now be made from aluminium or steel on the same line. By April, Britvic’s steel can formats will move to aluminium cans removing 8,000 tonnes of metal annually.

This increased capability is helping the business to continue to innovate. For example, Purdey’s, a premium, natural energy drink made with natural juice and botanicals but no caffeine, taurine or added sugar, is now being made in slim-line aluminium cans as well as glass bottles, adding to the success of the brand which increased revenue by nearly 30% in 2017 and has continued to grow its share of the energy category in the first quarter of 2018.

Clive Hooper, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Britvic, comments: “Rugby has been a home to Britvic for more than 30 years. The site has undergone significant change in that time; from the 80s when we manually produced drinks, through to the 90s when we moved to full automation, to our position today as the proud owners of some of the fastest can lines in Europe. At every stage, we have worked as a team to drive innovative change and I am looking forward to welcoming new team members to Rugby over the next 12 months as we continue to invest in our Rugby site.”