Coca-Cola Enterprises has opened a £30m automated warehouse at its soft drinks factory in Outwood, Wakefield. The facility was officially opened by shadow chancellor Ed Balls who is the local MP.
The new 34-metre high facility has been designed to hold and automatically move up to 30,000 pallets, doubling the overall site’s storage capacity and it has been fitted out with an automated storage and retrieval system.
The company said the new facility would allow all manufactured products to be delivered to customers directly, and in turn save some 500,000 road miles a year.
Coca Cola Enterprises is celebrating its 25th anniversary at Wakefield. It reckons it has invested £100m in the site.
Further investment in Wakefield will include the introduction of a combined heat and power system at the factory, and the development of a new production line, dedicated to making the company’s iconic contour Coca-Cola bottle in a larger packaging.
“It’s great to see Coca-Cola Enterprises continuing to invest at the Outwood facility- Coca-Cola is a big international company but a local firm here,” said shadow chancellor and local MP for Morley and Outwood, Ed Balls.
“If you buy a can of Coke in Leeds or Wakefield, the chances are it’s been manufactured using water from East Ardsley reservoir which is then bottled and distributed down the road in Wakefield. It’s great to see such local production for a global brand and we’re proud to have them manufacturing here in Outwood.”
