The Coca Cola Company officially announced the establishment of one of its largest and most technologically advanced plants in the city of Liberia, Guanacaste.

The new plan represents an initial investment of approximately $50 million and will be located across the Daniel Oduber International Airport in the Solarium Free Trade Zone; the plant of 34,000 square meters (365,973 square feet or 8.4 acres) is located in a property of 103,000 square meters (25.42 acres) and will replace the previous operation that was located at La Uruca, San José. It will be built in 18 months and would start operating on January 1st, 2020.

Coca Cola estimates that it will create an additional 130 jobs by 2020.

“We celebrate for Costa Rica and, especially for Guanacaste, the announcement of the choice of Liberia as the venue of one of the three most modern Coca Cola plants to produce concentrates. It confirms that the country is an investment destination that is based on the quality of its people, our stability and competitiveness; it reinforces us to continue redoubling efforts in which these investments are made in our provinces, to continue strengthening territorial development with generation of employment, welfare and opportunities. In this case, they are linked to local projects such as the Chorotega Regional Market, the expansion of the Daniel Oduber Airport and those that are executed in production, water, education and health, “said President Solís Rivera.

“We are proud to make this announcement not only because we believe in the growth opportunities of Costa Rica, but also that our concentrate plant is celebrating 50 years of being installed in Costa Rica,” said Roberto Mercadé, President of Coca-Cola for Latin Center.

“The project represents interesting opportunities for local linkage, particularly in the creation of indirect sources of employment, purchase of inputs and links with local organizations,” added Mercadé.

At this time, Coca Cola is the leading exporter in the food sector and the third largest exporter of goods in Costa Rica, according to data from the Foreign Trade Promoter (Procomer). In 2017, Costa Rica exported $ 10,665 million of goods, 7% more than in 2016. The contribution of Coca Cola is accounted in this important data.

“With the investment that the Coca-Cola Company is making in the new concentrate plant, we aim to double exports by 2024,” concluded Mercadé.

From Costa Rica, not only the concentrate is supplied to Central America, the Caribbean, Chile, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina to produce Coca-Cola, but also to another 89 drinks owned by the Coca-Cola Company. Likewise, and in special cases, the European Union and Puerto Rico are supplied. Proof of this is that due to the devastation of Hurricane Maria from Costa Rica the concentrate for the Caribbean island has been replaced.

Among the best in the world. The new Coca-Cola Concentrates plant will be among the best in the world. It is expected that, at the time of the plant’s inauguration, it will be the most modern in technology within the corporation.

Part of the reasons are that it will use robots to carry out the packaging of the products, at some moments, and will use different systems to give traceability to the materials, among others.
The Coca-Cola concentrate plant will be friendly to the environment, as it is designed to apply for LEED Silver certification, which is a seal of quality that it grants buildings to prove that they are sustainable and good with the environment.