Dallas-based Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages, a subsidiary of Mexico-based Coca-Cola bottler Arca Continental, will build a new production and distribution facility in Houston.
The facility will be nearly 1 million square feet, and the project will cost about $250 million, according to a press release. It will be the first Coca-Cola production plant built in the U.S. in 10 years, per the release. Information about the architect and general contractor was not immediately available.
The plant is expected to break ground in the third quarter of 2018, begin operating in early 2020 and incorporate five new production lines, in-line blow molding, distribution facilities, warehouse and sales. The company plans to consolidate production from two local manufacturing plants and four warehouse and distribution centers into the new facility. One of the locations that will be vacated is at 2800 Bissonnet, a prime inner-Loop site between West University Place and the Southwest Freeway. The move will create nearly $30 million in cost savings and operating efficiencies, per the release.
“The productivity, efficiency and sustainability that this new plant will bring to beverage production in the U.S. Coca-Cola system confirms our company’s determination to improve its competitiveness, enhance service at the point of sale and expand our portfolio for the communities we serve in Texas, Oklahoma, some parts of Arkansas and New Mexico, always in a profitable and sustainable way,” Arca Continental CEO Francisco Garza Egloff said in the release.
The new plant will be in Pinto Business Park in north Houston. Last August, sources told the Houston Business Journal that Coca-Cola bought about 110 acres acres in the park in 2016, but no plans for the land had been announced. The new facility will be built on a 140-acre site, per RNR.
Monterrey, Mexico-based Arca Continental acquired Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages in 2017 from Coca-Cola Refreshments, a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based The Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO), according to the Dallas company’s website. The acquisition made Arca the first Latin American bottler to operate in the U.S. Coca-Cola system, per the release. Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages employs more than 8,900 people across 10 production plants and 40 distribution facilities and serves more than 31 million consumers, per the release.
