The Coca-Cola Company has announced its plan to set up a $ 70 million new factory in Ethiopia as it celebrates its 60th anniversary in the country. According to Bruno Pietracci, president of the Southern and East Africa business unit of The Coca-Cola Company, Coca-Cola has decided to expand its outlay and promote Ethiopia as a destination for other potential foreign investors.
The beverage firm and its shareholders also plan to invest $300 million to expand their businesses in the country in the coming five years. The new Coca-Cola beverages plant will have a manufacturing capacity of 70,000 drinks per day.
The Company broke ground on the new plant on 20th June 2019. Located in the town of Sebeta, 25 kilometers from the capital Addis Ababa, it will be the biggest bottler and the fourth of its kind in Ethiopia once it is finalized early next year.
The fifth plant is planned to be set up in Hawassa, capital of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR).
The first Coca-Cola bottling plant was established in Addis Ababa in 1959 with a capacity of bottling 36,000 plastic bottles (PET) per hour, while the second was installed in Dire Dawa in 1965.
Reports said that East African Bottling Share Company (EABSC), a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, launched “Vision 2020” where it will become energy self-sufficient; and during the same year, the Company set plans to reach 100 million unit cases, that will put Ethiopia on par with Egypt and South Africa.
The Coca-Cola Company entered the Ethiopian market in 60 years ago and the Company is currently stated to employ 2,200 local jobs.
Ethiopia has become a haven for most foreign investors with many companies relocating their manufacturing plants from countries such as Turkey, India, and China to Ethiopia.
Source: Embassy of Ethiopia in Brussels