Britvic is ploughing upwards of £100m into its Rugby factory, creating 80 jobs and improving sustainability.
The move, part of a broader £240m investment in the soft drink giant’s UK operations, will significantly ramp up production at the site. The company has installed three new can lines, allowing for cans to be made from aluminium or steel on the same line, letting Britvic fully transition its steel formats to aluminium by April, removing 8,000 tonnes of metal per year from production.
The company also plans to create an on-site warehouse and aseptic line for producing preservative-free drinks, with an eye to improving logistics planning and reducing road miles.
Britvic had “worked as a team to drive innovative change” said its chief supply chain officer Clive Hooper. The supplier has been in Rugby for more than 30 years, and currently employs 176 people at the plant.
The site had undergone significant change over the years, Hopper said. “From the 1980s, when we manually produced drinks, through to the 1990s, when we moved to full automation, to our position today as the proud owners of some of the fastest can lines in Europe.”
Britvic’s Rugby investment marks part of a wider push towards sustainability from the soft drinks maker. It has set targets for 2020 including reducing carbon emissions, achieving zero waste to landfill, reducing the amount of materials used across all formats, and introducing recycled PET into its GB portfolio at 15% content.
The latest news comes as Britvic upped revenues by 3.3% to £337.2m over the past quarter (2 October-24 December), with GB revenues up 1%, boosted by a strong performance for its carbonates, of which sales grew 4.9%.
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