CCEP upgrades Kewdale can production with A$39.7 million investment

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners has invested A$39.7 million in its Kewdale manufacturing facility in Western Australia. A new can line is designed to raise production capacity by more than 40%, increasing speed from approximately 1,060 to 1,500 cans per minute. Its stated capacity is up to 16 million cases, equivalent to about 384 million cans.

CCEP plans round-the-clock operation during peak summer demand. The site employs 300 people, including 125 manufacturing team members. A pilot offering flexible part-time frontline manufacturing roles attracted more than 900 applications in its first intake and has resulted in new hires, according to the company.

A longstanding Western Australian operation

The Kewdale site opened on Miles Road on 26 October 1972, with then-premier John Tonkin officiating. Coca-Cola Classic was its first product. By the site's fiftieth anniversary in 2022, manufacturing had expanded to include beverages in cans, plastic bottles and bag-in-box packaging for hospitality venues.

At that anniversary, cans accounted for just over 40% of site output, plastic bottles about 56% and bag-in-box products the remaining 2%. Around fifty trucks entered or left the hub daily. Those figures describe the site's 2022 operations, before the current investment. Supply-chain general manager Linda Leo identified Fuze Tea among products manufactured at Kewdale for distribution elsewhere in the country.

Electricity procurement across Australia

CCEP's earlier Australian energy programme combined rooftop solar installations with power-purchase agreements.

In September 2024, the company announced a ten-year virtual power-purchase agreement with ENGIE to support its target of using entirely renewable electricity across Australian operations from 1 January 2025. The arrangement concerned energy procurement and associated certificates.

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners

Under that agreement, CCEP would purchase a share of renewable electricity and Renewable Energy Credits from the Wellington North Solar Farm, owned by Lightsource bp in New South Wales.

The company's sustainability programme, This Is Forward, covers the following areas alongside its climate commitments: