Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, which operates the Coca-Cola franchise for Ireland, has officially opened a new energy efficient bottling plant, computerised warehouse, and community-focused visitors centre at Knockmore Hill, County Antrim.
The €130 million facility employs 600 people and has the capacity to produce a wide range of non-alcoholic beverages for delivery throughout the entire island of Ireland. A key component of the new bottling plant is a combined heat and power (CHP) system which has been constructed in partnership with ContourGlobal, a leading international company specialising in the development of efficient energy installations.
It will cut CO2 emissions at the plant by up to 66% while supplying excess clean electricity to the local power grid.
The CHP plant is the fourth to be officially opened across Coca-Cola Hellenic’s territory, which extends across 28 countries, and another 11 plants are under development by ContourGlobal. Coca-Cola Hellenic aims to cut CO2 emissions by an average of 20% across all 80 of its bottling plants.
The new Irish facility operates seven filling lines – four for PET bottles, one for glass, one for cans, and one for post-mix. There is a PET moulding unit with six blow moulders capable of handling 750,000 bottles per day.
Coca-Cola Hellenic is one of the world’s largest bottlers of Coca-Cola products with sales of more than 2 billion unit cases. It has a broad geographic reach serving a population of approximately 560 million people.
CAPTION:
Pictured at the opening of the facility at Knockmore Hill are (left to right): Northern Ireland Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster; First Minister Peter Robinson; Marcel Martin, general manager of Coca-Cola Hellenic for the island of Ireland; Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness; and chief executive of Coca Cola Hellenic, Doras Constantinou.