Indian Coca-Cola bottling company SLMG Beverages has planned further capital expenditure after opening a new facility in Uttar Pradesh.
The Amethi site was opened on Tuesday (31 October) and is reportedly “South Asia’s largest bottling plant”, according to an SLMG Beverages post on LinkedIn.
It spans 35 acres and is capable of bottling 4,500 bottles per minute.
An SLMG Beverages statement carried by Indian business publication The Economic Times said the company plans to invest about “Rs7bn ($84m) in this plant with a total direct and indirect employment of nearly 650 people in the area”.
The Amethi facility has six lines that will produce beverages in the sparkling, juices and water categories with sustainable packaging solutions.
“We plan to add one plant in Bijnor and one later in north-eastern part of the state. This would entail an investment of Rs17bn,” Paritosh Ladhani, joint managing director of SLMG Beverages, told BQ Prime in an interview.
Over its now eight plants, SLMG Beverages produces more than 28,000 bottles per minute of all brands of Coca-Cola – including Coke, Maaza, Limca, Fanta, Thums Up and Kinley – and had sales of Rs46bn in its financial 2023, and is “likely to touch Rs75bn by the end of this fiscal year”, according to Ladhani.
“So far, we have made cumulative investments of $800m in putting up bottling plants for Coca-Cola in India. We will invest an additional $200m to take our total investment to $1bn. With this, we will be the first independent bottling company for Coca-Cola in India to do so,” he added in the interview.
Coca-Cola India has 13 bottling partners in India, which operates about 40 bottling plants in the country.
The Indian unit has its own bottling arm Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB) – which bottles more than half of Coca-Cola's total volumes in India through its 16 facilities.
