The healthcare and food and drinks conglomerate has invested £18m in its Lucozade and Ribena manufacturing facility in Coleford, Gloucestershire.
The investment is for a new high speed bottling plant which will provide added capacity and improve cost efficiency by enabling GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK’s) supply chain to be “minutely responsive to customer demand and removing the need to maintain costly stocks of product.”
The new line uses recycled plastic PET bottles that are manufactured at Coleford, which employs 520 people, and will also include the capability to produce a range of new multipack products. The investment could result in the creation of 20 new positions at the plant.
Rob Baxter, general manager of the Coleford site, commented: “This £18m investment in a new plant at Coleford in 2012 is a huge step forward in terms of continually improving our efficiency and providing a service for our customers that often need deliveries at short notice.
The investment follows the £70m that went into the Coleford plant, which has been producing Ribena since 1947, year, in 2011. Mr Baxter says this has already delivered significant cost savings including 85% reduced transportation costs, reduced plastic use and reduced energy expenditure.
The facility manufactured almost a billion bottles of Lucozade and Ribena for the UK and global markets in 2011.
