Birmingham’s Coca-Cola United pops open new $67 million facility in Chattanooga
Officials cut the ribbon on the new Chattanooga Coca-Cola Bottling Company facility. (contributed)
Birmingham-based Coca-Cola Bottling Company United Inc. keeps pouring it on with innovation and growth with Tuesday’s grand opening of the $67 million Chattanooga Coca-Cola Bottling Company.
The Chattanooga operation is the world’s first Coca-Cola bottler and a division of Coca-Cola United. It will distribute Coca-Cola and other products to customers in the Tennessee Valley, including parts of Georgia and Alabama.
“Coca-Cola United’s investment in this world-class sales and distribution center is tangible evidence of our confidence and optimism in our business and Chattanooga,” said Claude B. Nielsen, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola United. “All of this has been made possible through our dynamic partnerships in this community and our enterprise for the past 117 years.”
The new 305,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility is on Shepherd Road in Chattanooga.
“We’ve come a long way from the Patten Parkway location in 1899 by continuing to provide the best brands, excellent customer service and being good corporate citizens,” said Darren Hodges, director of the Tennessee Valley Division of Coca-Cola United. “This facility gives Coca-Cola United two locations with more than 600,000 square feet of total space and over 500 employees in Chattanooga. Our new state of the art facility positions us for continuous growth in the generations to come.”
Stan Ellington, vice president of United Packers Inc., said the new distribution center shows that while the product may be historic as Coca-Cola, bottlers and distributors can always find ways to modernize and innovate.
“The 2111 West Shepherd Drive facility is also the first within Coca-Cola United to install Vertique – the cutting-edge warehouse and case-packing system which improves productivity and accuracy of warehouse order-picking functions,” he said. “Vertique has the ability to optimize the picking of our customer orders and build them on the fewest number of pallets. Additionally, the system is easily expanded with sales growth, or the additions of new brands and packages to meet consumer’s preference.”
James Quincey, president and chief operating officer of the Coca-Cola Company, said the company relies on bottlers and distributors like Coca-Cola United to continue to seek out better, more efficient ways to deliver products to customers.
“This new facility is emblematic of the energy and momentum we’re seeing across our bottling system today,” Quincey said. “It’s fitting that our pioneering friends at Chattanooga Coca-Cola Bottling Company and Coca-Cola Bottling Company United are leading the way into the future through a clear commitment to our consumers and retail partners in the place where the world first loved Coca-Cola in a bottle.”
With 4,900 employees serving 33 territories in seven states, Coca-Cola United is the third largest bottler of Coca-Cola products in the U.S. and the largest private bottler of Coke and its products.
The company was founded in 1902 and has been experiencing rapid growth through acquisitions and expansion in recent years, including adding the Georgia territory that includes Coca-Cola’s headquarters in Atlanta.
