P3-B Coke Mega Plant to rise in Villanueva

By Mike Banos

Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines Inc. (CCBPI) P3-billion “Mega-Plant” now under construction in Barangay Katipunan, Villanueva, Misamis Oriental will be operational in February, 2011.

Villanueva Mayor Juliette T. Uy said the new 11-hectare facility will not only bottle the company’s signature soft drink brands but the firm’s bottled water brands as well.

“Besides soft drinks, the plant will also include packaging and bottle manufacturing facilities,” Uy said. “It will serve markets in Mindanao and the Visayas.”

Uy said the finished products and raw materials for the mega plant would be coursed through the nearby Mindanao Container Terminal facility at the Phividec Industrial Estate-Misamis Oriental. Based on initial estimates of industry sources, the plant would have a combined capacity equivalent of over 400,000 cases a year.

CCBPI now operates two production lines with a daily capacity of 20,000 cases at a 2.3 hectare site in downtown Cagayan de Oro. Frequent production line stoppages due to floods, inadequate electrical supply and distribution problems due to vehicular traffic have forced company officials to look for a new and bigger site.

CCBPI is wholly-owned by The Coca Cola Company, which bought the 65 shareholdings of San Miguel Corporation (SMC) in CCBPI in 2007 for US$590 million. The acquisition includes soft drinks manufacturer Cosmos Bottling Corporation (CBC), and Philippine Beverage Partners, Inc., the company which distributes the products. Today, the company's carbonated brands in the market include Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Sprite, Sprite Light, and Royal, and CBC brands Pop Cola, Sarsi, Cheers, Lift, Jaz Cola, and Sparkle.

With over 25 beverage brands, CCBPI claims leadership of the soft beverage corporation in the Philippines. With subsidiaries Cosmos Bottling Corporation and Philippine Beverage Partners Inc., it is one of the world's top bottlers of Coca-Cola and one of the Philippines' top 20 corporations in terms of revenue, the Philippines being the 5th largest market for Coca-Cola worldwide.