Coca-Cola İçecek (CCI) has opened a $70-million coke bottling plant in Multan and plans to invest another $200 million in Pakistan in the next 3 years.
CCI chairman Tuncay Özilhan and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar inaugurated Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan Limited’s (CCBPL) brand new bottling plant set up in Multan.
The new bottling plant in Multan is spread over 120,000 square meters and will generate employment for over 2,500 people directly and indirectly, the company says.
Coca-Cola İçecek (CCI), the Turkey-based parent of Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan Limited is pursuing an active expansion plan in the country and said it needed to open a plant in Multan to increase its production capacity.
“Coupled with the Pakistani government’s efforts for economic prosperity, we are confident that Pakistan will grow its economy in the upcoming years,” Tuncay Özilhan, chairman of CCI, said at the inauguration ceremony of the new bottling plant.
“With its friendly people, talented workforce, promising youth as well as its rich and diverse culture, we believe in Pakistan and the future of this country,” Özilhan said.
“We believe in Pakistan’s potential and we receive new investment offers from the administration of the Punjab province in which intense investments are being made” Özilhan stated. He added that the company will welcome opportunities in certain areas, in accordance with its objective to invest an additional $200 million in Pakistan over the next three years.
Last week, Coca-Cola İçecek opened an additional facility, with its first factory in the Punjab province of Multan. With this investment, the company increased its production capacity to 300 million liters of beverages, and offered an additional 2,500 jobs in the factory.
Anadolu Group and Coca-Cola İçecek’s CEO Tuncay Özilhan said the company provides jobs for 4,000 individuals directly and 70,000 individuals indirectly in Pakistan, adding that they had increased market share in Pakistan by 38 percent since 2008.
CCI one of the largest Turkish investors operating in the Pakistani food industry, decided to expand its operations in the country. The company entered the Pakistani market by purchasing Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan for $77 million in 2008, and increased the number of its factories to six with an investment of $500 million in the country.
The new plant, the press release says, will serve to meet the burgeoning consumer demand throughout the country for its beverage products, which include Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Sprite Zero, Fanta, Rani and Kinley.
Coca-Cola Pakistan already operates six bottling factories in Pakistan, located in Karachi, Gujranwala, Multan, Lahore, Rahimyar Khan and Faisalabad.