Thinking globally while acting locally is the very much the proverbial ‘real thing’ at Coke Canada Bottling Limited, the country’s largest beverage producer with a 120-year history of producing the world’s bestselling carbonated soft-drink brands for the Canadian market.

Since producing the first-ever bottle of Coca-Cola outside the U.S. in Toronto back in 1906, Coca-Cola’s Canadian bottling operations have grown to become the country’s leading manufacturer and distributor of non-alcoholic beverages, employing about 6,000 people at over 50 facilities in every province and territory across Canada.

Headquartered in Toronto, the independent bottler has operated as a family-owned business since 2018, when Coca-Cola’s Canadian bottling and distribution operation were acquired by the Tanenbaum and Bridgeman families.

Operating give manufacturing facilities in Montreal, Toronto, Brampton, Ont., Calgary and Richmond, B.C., the company’s relentless drive to “Be the leading beverage partner in Canada” has been actively supported by hundreds of millions dollars of capital investment m throughout its vast nationwide network in recent years, with its western Canadian operations a major beneficiary of large-scale capital upgrades.

With a new $70 million high-density distribution centre in Calgary scheduled to commence operations next year, Coke Canada Bottling has also invested about $65 million in various upgrades to its distribution and manufacturing capabilities just north of Vancouver in Richmond, which serves British Columbia’s Lower Mainland, interior B.C. and the Vancouver Island markets.

“Our Richmond manufacturing facility makes and packages over 210 SKUs (stock-keeping units) into 18 different packages, which results in the production of close to 20 million cases of product a year,” says Coke Canada Bottling’s new president Tony Chow.

While the Richmond bottling plant is the smallest of the company’s five manufacturing sites, the 123,000-square-foot facility employs 160 full-time staff to produce popular Coca-Cola brands such as Coca-Cola, Coke Zero, Diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Canada Dry, A&W and Monster Energy drinks.

As Chow reveals, “The Richmond manufacturing facility makes several formats, including PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles, canned beverages, and our ‘Bag in a Box’ product, which is the concentrate that we provide to our food-service and on-premise customers.”

For its part, the recently upgraded Richmond 230,000-square-foot distribution centre is home to an additional full-time 380 employees, making it the company’s largest warehousing operation in western Canada.

“The team at our Richmond manufacturing facility makes and bottles the product before it’s transported to the warehouse distribution centre,” Chow remarks, “where it’s stored for a short time before it’s picked up and transported to our customers by members of our distribution and fleet teams in our iconic ‘Red Fleet’ of delivery vehicles.”

Since 2018, Coke Canada Bottling has poured about $65 million into various capital upgrades at Richmond operations, according to Chow, to boost their manufacturing output and customer service.

These multistage upgrades include:

• A 2024 start-up of a brand new $24-million PET Line at the manufacturing plant.
  “This line allows us to increase our ability to grow in the market and added capacity to meet the needs of customers and consumers,” Chow explains.
  “This new line also has the capability to blow bottles in-house from pre-forms, which are much smaller than fully formed bottles.
  “Because we can now transport many more pre-forms in a shipment than fully formed bottles, adding this new line has helped us to decrease our fuel usage and decrease our transportation-related emissions,” states Chow.
• An $18 million investment into a brand new distribution centre combining the sales, warehousing and distribution operations, opened up last years.
• “It offers expanded storage capabilities and increased efficiency,” says Chow, “and it has allowed us to consolidate strengths and capabilities from several locations into one.”

Says Chow: “Our most recent milestone has been our $12.55 million investment into our new canning line, which allows us to add can capacity to our western Canada supply chain and increase our local manufacturing capabilities, ensuring we’re able to produce even more beverages locally in Richmond.

“We completed this project by retrofitting an old PET line and moving one of two operational can fillers,” he notes.

“Additionally, we invested another $4 million this year into our Richmond manufacturing facility for new roofing and an advanced barcode scanning system, which automatically halts or redirects any item with missing or incorrect labeling—reinforcing our commitment to quality assurance and error-free processing,” Chow states.

According to Chow, the new PET and canning lines at the Richmond plant has expanded the facility’s output capacity by an additional eight million cases of product per year.

“This includes our investment in our new PET line and new canning line, which has resulted in a combined incremental eight million cases per year,” he says.

The investment in Richmond operations is a fitting follow-up to the $100 million the company has recently poured into its Calgary facilities, including installation of the company’s first high-density AS/RS (automated storage and retrieval system), multiple enhancements to the water treatment system to improve water usage, and adding new trucks to the delivery fleet.

“We know that in order to grow, we must continue to invest in our owned manufacturing infrastructure as we work to better serve customers and consumers across western Canada and beyond,” says Chow, citing the significant economic spin-off benefits these investment bring to the local economy.

“Our team annually injects approximately $132 million into the Lower Mainland economy through local vendors and partners,” citing the significant new business opportunities generated for numerous Canadian and local businesses including Descon Conveyor Systems, Actemium Canada, Pivot Systems, Foundation Mechanical and Western Pacific Enterprises, among others.

“We want our communities to be better off with us and are working hard to earn our social licence to operate by building our business responsibly and making our employees, communities, customers and stakeholders proud,” Chow proclaims.

“As ‘Your Local Bottler,’ we have close local connections in the communities where we operate and are deeply invested in making a positive impact,” he states. “We are committed to investing in our owned manufacturing infrastructure to support sustainable growth.

“Through this investment in our Richmond manufacturing facility, for example, we are ensuring that we can meet the growing needs of our customers across the province,” Chow points out.

“Ultimately, it means we are helping to get more locally-made products into the hands of consumers,” says Chow, while emphasizing the company’s firm commitment to sustainable production and packaging.

“We were the first beverage company in Canada to transition all our 500-ml sparkling brands in clear PET to 100 per cent recycled rPET—excluding cap and label—and we continue to find ways to reduce the amount of plastic we use in our bottles,” Chow states.

“As of the end of 2024, most of our 500-ml sparkling beverages now contain 2.5 grams, or 11.9 per cent, less plastic than they did in 2023.”

Adds Chow: Our Richmond manufacturing facility has completed several local projects to make progress on our Toward a Better Future Together Action Plan and environmental sustainability goals.

“The team has implemented some key operational changes that make their cleaning processes more efficient,” Chow continues, “which has helped us to reduce the amount of water used at the facility for each liter of product we produce.”

As one of the region’s biggest manufacturing employers, Coke Canada Bottling is also a major sponsor of local community programs and events, Chow points out.

“We are working to make a positive difference in the communities where we operate through employee volunteerism and community partnerships,” Chow explains.

“Our Richmond team continues to make a positive impact through employee volunteerism, and they are active supporters of our national partner, Junior Achievement.

“Through this partnership, we are working hard to make a meaningful difference by supporting the employability of Canada’s diverse youth,” Chow reveals.

“For three years in a row, the team has also actively supported Tree Canada and the City of Richmond through the Partners in Planting Program, reinforcing their commitment to environmental sustainability and community engagement.”

According to Chow, this social activism plays a critical part in the company’s marketing strategy to appeal to the younger generations of Canadian consumers.

“Our teams are always looking at consumers trends so that we can provide a variety of beverage choices for every part of the day, for all different needs and occasions,” says Chow.

“For instance, we know that Gen Z consumers are prioritizing flavor alongside balancing their sugar content,” he points out. “They are also seeking out companies that are earning their social license to operate and doing good in the community, both of which are driving purchase intent.

“We saw this through the success of our Canada’s Kindest Community program last year.”

With an expansive product portfolio comprising 25 different brands and 75 unique packaging formats, Coke Canada Bottling is firmly focused on future growth and continued product and packaging innovation to maintain its leading market positioning, according to Chow.

“We are focused on driving continuous improvement in our manufacturing; planning and procurement; transportation; distribution and warehousing processes; and investing in tools and equipment to enable our growth,” Chow declares.

“We believe that leaning into intelligent automation and a data-driven culture will help us unlock the power of our people.

“We are working to transform, innovate and digitize our business to ensure we are ready for the future.

“We know we must fuel our growth through technology and investments,” says Chow, underlining the company’s unwavering commitment to proactive capital investment strategies.

“It is essential that we invest in our strategic infrastructure for what we’re doing today and for what we will do tomorrow,” says Chow.

“We’ve already committed hundreds of millions to do just that, and, with more to come.”

Says Chow: “At Coke Canada, we’ve laid a strong foundation for building a multi-generational business.

“We aim to be the leading beverage partner in Canada, and we know that we can only do this if we are the best at making, moving and selling our products,” he concludes.

“And as we work to become the leading beverage partner in Canada, we know we must offer the best beverage portfolio that meets Canadians’ diverse needs.”