Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), the world’s largest independent bottler of Coca-Cola, has announced a planned investment of £42.3m for a new Automated Storage Retrieval System (ASRS) warehouse at its site in Wakefield, Europe’s largest soft drinks plant by volume.
The new ASRS will take two and a half years to build. To maximise space, it will stand at 38 metres tall and will increase Wakefield’s warehouse capacity, allowing it to hold and move an additional 29,500 pallets on top of its current capacity of 29,000 pallets. It will also deliver a reduction of 18,500 vehicle journeys per year from the road, equating to 441,000 km per year.
This funding follows a £31m site investment for the installation of a new state-of-the-art, canning line, capable of producing 2,000 cans per minute, which has been operational since July of this year. The line provides additional production capabilities for CCEP’s light-weight 330ml cans across brands including Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Fanta, Dr Pepper and Sprite.
As part of its ‘Everyone is Welcome’ ethos, CCEP has also been evolving its approach to recruitment, focusing on attributes like skills and potential rather than experience or qualifications, to encourage more people to consider a career in manufacturing. As part of its 550-strong workforce, this approach has helped the site attract more females to work on its new canning line this year; with three of four team leaders on the line being female and a total 40/60 women to men gender split on the new line.
The site has received £103 million in investment since 2019 to enhance efficiencies and operate more sustainably, such as the replacement of its material handling equipment (MHE). This includes a fleet of 75 gas-powered forklift trucks, which is used to move cases of product around the site, replaced with units powered by lithium ion batteries, producing no carbon emissions in their day-to-day operation.
Vanessa Smith, Director of Wakefield Supply Chain Operations at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners said: “The new ASRS warehouse ensures we continue expanding our production capabilities as we look to the future, and operate as efficiently and sustainably as possible.
“This follows on from the installation our state-of-the-art canning line, which became operational this summer. In addition to improving the sites capabilities of our lightweight cans, the new line and latest investments underscore our commitment to our Wakefield site and the 550 strong workforce who work here.”
Stephen Moorhouse, Vice-President and General Manager, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (GB), commented: “Wakefield offers a range of modern manufacturing jobs and sits at the heart of many of our latest manufacturing technologies. We’ve invested more than £100million since 2019 to help us evolve operations on site and further support the local economy.”
Simon Lightwood MP for Wakefield and Rothwell said: “CCEP continues to play an important role in and around Wakefield. It’s fantastic to see the business invest in delivering more efficient and sustainable operations, which shows the organisations commitment to being a major employer in West Yorkshire.”
Mollie King at Lark 
