FDBusiness.com

As part of a major investment in 2017, Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP), the world’s largest independent Coca-Cola bottler, has announced a brand new £39 million Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) warehouse at its Sidcup factory, set to be fully operational in 2018.

Designed to hold and automatically move 25,000 pallets, the facility will triple the site’s storage capacity allowing all manufactured products to be delivered to customers directly, which will save approximately 10,817 road miles by HGV trucks and 3,867 tonnes of CO2 a year.

CCEP’s latest investment in automation, follows the opening of similar ASRS facilities at its manufacturing sites in Edmonton and Wakefield, helping to further increase efficiency across its supply chain and support CCEP’s goal to reduce the carbon footprint of the drink in the consumer’s hand by one third by 2020.

The development of innovative technologies such as automation was among the key trends identified in a joint research project conducted with Cranfield University in 2016. The study identified a vision and roadmap to the sustainable ‘factory of the future’, looking ahead to 2050, specifically earmarking the smart operations offered by automated warehousing and related data analysis.

Trevor Stacey, operations director at Coca-Cola European Partners Sidcup, says: “The new ASRS warehouse is a significant investment in sustainable manufacturing for CCEP and has been an exciting project for the team here in Sidcup, enabling us to explore and implement the latest manufacturing technologies to increase efficiencies across our operations.”

Leendert den Hollander, vice president and general manager at Coca-Cola European Partners GB, says: “On both a local and national level, and as a global business, we’re passionate about making positive contributions to the communities in which we operate, whilst remaining at the forefront of manufacturing innovation. This initiative and our wider investment in automation technology will be an important step in both helping to future-proof the sector and driving forward our sustainability journey by achieving significant CO2 savings.”

CCEP is the sole licensed bottler for products of The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) in Andorra, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Iceland, Luxemburg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. In Great Britain (GB) it employs some 4,000 people across England, Scotland and Wales at manufacturing sites, offices and depots.