Coca-Cola to build new $70M facility in northeast Calgary

Bottles of Coca-Cola are on display at a grocery market in Uniontown, Pa, on Sunday, April 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Soft drink giant Coca-Cola is staking out some more territory in northeast Calgary.

The state-of-the-art bottling plant, which will include a high-density warehouse at its existing property at 23 Street N.E., will cost an estimated $70 million, officials said.

The company calls the development its largest single-facility investment since 2018.

"Our mission is to deliver optimism and create a better future by bringing sustainable value for our customers, consumers and communities," said Todd Parsons, CEO of Coke Canada Bottling, in a statement.

"We're committed to investing to grow our business in Calgary for generations to come."

The upgraded building will host the company's first automated storage and retrieval system, a digital inventory management system and an increased door dock capacity for its fleet.

The warehouse is expected to be 60,000 square feet and have the capacity to store 19,000 pallets of Coca-Cola products.

The investment is the latest development for Calgary's 400 Coca-Cola employees, many of whom walked off the job two years ago over wage and scheduling issues.

That job action lasted two weeks and ended on April 1, 2021, when workers and the company agreed to a nine per cent wage increase, an boost in maximum severance and scheduling flexibility.

The company says the new facility builds on a growing demand for non-alcoholic drinks.

The Calgary bottling plant operates 24 hours a day, six days a week and services 4,000 customers in southern Alberta.