Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa’s (CCBSA’s ) Elgin-based Appletiser plant, in the Western Cape, is set to double its yearly production by October, owing to the beverage’s integration into the CCBSA supply chain grid.
Appletiser SA is a wholly owned subsidiary of CCBSA, following last year’s merger of The Coca-Cola Company, SABMiller and Gutsche Family Investments’ non-alcoholic ready-to-drink bottling operation. Appletiser SA produces 59% of all ‘Tiser’ products for domestic and global distribution at the Elgin plant.
CCBSA has plans in place for Elgin to produce additional Coca-Cola brands that are currently produced at the other CCBSA manufacturing sites. With the addition of 200 mℓ, 330 mℓ and 440 mℓ cans of other Coca-Cola products, the facility will produce in excess of prevailing volumes at the time of the merger.
CCBSA MD Velaphi Ratshefola noted that the company was confident that Appletiser SA had the capacity to increase production output considerably to serve the domestic market and to be used as a base for export to the rest of the continent and worldwide.
Currently all Appletiser’s apple and pear concentrate is sourced from South Africa, with grape concentrate increasingly sourced locally, depending on availability and affordability of supply.