Two Coke bottlers to invest Rs510 crore in Haryana

New Delhi: Two bottling partners of the US-based beverage maker Coca-Cola Co.—Kandhari Beverages Pvt. Ltd. and Enrich Agro Food Products Pvt. Ltd—will together invest ₹ 510 crore in Haryana to expand manufacturing capacity.

The two companies signed pacts with the state government to this effect on the second day of the Happening Haryana Global Investors Summit on Tuesday.

The proposed investment is expected to create 325 new jobs, the companies said in a joint statement.

Kandhari Beverages will invest ₹ 300 crore to set up multiple high-speed manufacturing lines for juice, energy and sparkling drinks at Saha in Ambala by 2018.

Enrich Agro Food Products will invest ₹ 165 crore to set up a new manufacturing line for beverages in Rohtak by 2018 and the remaining ₹ 45 crore will be spent on a packaging unit for Coca-Cola system.

The investment plan comes less than a month after Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd (HCCBPL), the largest bottling partner of the American beverages maker, decided to halt manufacturing at three of its plants in Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya and Rajasthan as the US giant faced challenges from activists over alleged reduction of groundwater.

HCCBPL operates 24 bottling plants and covers about 65% of bottling operations for Coca-Cola in India. In 2012, Coca-Cola had said that it invest $5 billion in India by 2020.

According to The Economic Times report dated 29 February the company was looking to sell its capital-intensive bottling operations in India at a valuation of $1 billion.

Its rival American food and beverages company PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd had, in 2014, divested four bottling units to its partner Varun Beverages, a subsidiary of Delhi-based businessman Ravi Jaipuria-owned RJ Corp., as part of a franchise agreement.