Coca-Cola Relocates Kerala Bottling Unit To Orissa

Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, the bottling arm of Coca-Cola India, has moved one bottling line of its controversy-ridden Plachimada plant in Kerala, to Orissa. This could mark the beginning of Coca-Cola relocating its entire bottling operations out of the state. In all, the soft drink major has three bottling lines at its Plachimada plant, all of which have been lying idle since 2004. The company had put on hold bottling activity in the state three years ago, following a government directive to stop drawing ground water from its plant premises. Later, Coke obtained a conditional licence to operate its plant, renewable every three months. The company is in the midst of a $250 million restructuring exercise involving its bottling and marketing operations. It is in the process of buying out idle manufacturing capacities of co-bottlers, besides setting up new lines to support its proposed forthcoming launches. The company has been in negotiations with its co-packers in Balia, Kanpur, Rourkela and Aurangabad, to buy-out their surplus capacities, and some of the deals have already been sealed.