Coca-Cola HBC Hungary Inaugurates Production Line in Dunaharaszti
Coca-Cola HBC Hungary inaugurated its newest, ultra-modern production line in Dunaharaszti on Tuesday in the presence of Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó. The new line and the new production hall, which covers 3,000 sqm, were completed with an investment worth approximately EUR 23 million.
Hungary's largest beverage company has increased its production capacity by 30% with this development, started in spring 2023, in response to the growing demand from the domestic and international markets. The investment has enabled the country's largest soft drinks producer to make another major step towards building the largest Central European production hub of the Coca-Cola HBC Group in Dunaharaszti.
Coca-Cola HBC Hungary has been continuously developing its production operations since 1996 and has invested more than HUF 135 billion in its domestic operations over the past 27 years. The company produces products in Dunaharaszti and Zalaszentgrót, it has eight logistics distribution centers, including Hungary's largest food industry warehouse. Coca-Cola HBC Hungary pays special attention to the improvement and modernization of the Dunaharaszti plant, as not only the entire Hungarian market but also 17 export countries are mainly supplied from here with the company's products.
Planning of the new production line, aimed at providing high quality services to meet growing domestic and foreign demand, started back in 2020 and, following its approval in 2022, construction works started in February 2023, including logistical and other infrastructure improvements to support increased production volume.
"We are proud that we have been able to bring state-of-the-art production technology to Dunaharaszti within the Coca-Cola HBC Group and to contribute to the growth of the Hungarian economy with this new major investment. We are committed to the domestic market and supporting our business operations in all areas of the value chain through continuous improvements. We have made several investments in recent years that bring us closer to building a modern production hub in Dunaharaszti that meets the requirements of the 21st century," said László Békefi, general manager of Coca-Cola HBC Hungary.
"We are grateful to all the companies operating in Hungary that are continuously expanding their capacities and using increasingly advanced technologies in their production processes. The modern economic history of Coca-Cola and Hungary are intertwined," said Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade at the inauguration ceremony.
"Within the framework of the Strategic Partnership Agreement, signed in 2012 and renewed in 2021, the Hungarian government contributed to the realization of the investment with nearly HUF 740 mln non-refundable cash grant, provided on the basis of individual government decision," he added.
Together with the new hall and production line inaugurated on Tuesday, there are now a total of eight lines operating in Dunaharaszti, producing can, glass, bag-in-box, carbonated and non-carbonated products. The new production line is fully automated, and unlike before, technological advances allow all processes to be carried out by a single line, the company notes.
When there is a change in the packaging to be produced, the blow molding machine is robotically converted, reducing the changeover time between formats from 150 minutes to 35 minutes. The high-performance, ultra-modern production line will produce single-serve and multi-serve packs of carbonated Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite, and Kinley beverages. The brand-new production line is capable of producing 36,000 bottles of 1,75 l soft drinks per hour.
The Dunaharaszti plant is using 100% of its electricity from renewable sources, and the energy use for producing one liter of product has been reduced by 30% and water by 20% since 2014. The annual improvement in energy and water use ratio is expected at the same rate with newly installed production line.
The Hungarian subsidiary was the first in the Coca-Cola HBC Group to introduce artificial intelligence-driven robot technology into the warehousing processes in 2022, and in the same year, thanks to a sustainable packaging technology innovation, it replaced the secondary packaging of its aluminum multipacks with 100% recyclable cardboard packaging, reducing plastic consumption by 230 tons annually.
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