Britvic officially opens state of the art canning line
Rugby MP officially opens Britvic’s new state of the art canning line. Image: Britvic
Britvic officially opened its largest production site and most recent canning line in the presence of Rugby MP Mark Pawsey.
The state-of-the-art line, already producing internationally known brands including Tango, Pepsi and 7UP, saw Britvic invest a further £26.9 million in the Rugby factory and create 20 new jobs. This brings the total number of employees at the site to over 340.
The factory boasts some of the fastest lines in Europe, with the new canning line turning out around 120,000 cans per hour. Bringing the site’s total to four canning lines, the most recent line boosts total capacity by around 20%. This takes total production to a rate of just under half a million cans per hour.
Speaking after the visit, Mark Pawsey expressed his “great pleasure” at opening Britvic’s new canning line and see the additional investment by Britvic at the Rugby site.
“This is great news for our local economy and has created a number of new jobs, including opportunities for apprentices from the local area,” said Pawsey.” Britvic has a 35 year history of manufacturing in Rugby and the fourth canning line shows that the company remains committed to their site and their employees here.”
He continued: “We were also able to discuss the need to ensure that packaging remains sustainable and Britvic’s arrangement with Ardagh Group is a great example of minimising the carbon footprint. It is also vital that the sector continues to recycle as much as they can and the work which is ongoing at Britvic both for plastic and aluminium recycling is extremely positive.”
Nigel Paine, supply chain director, added: “Britvic knows that a strong supply chain is fundamental to its continued success. Having created a modern supply chain for the long-term with our Business Capability Programme, we’re now supercharging it with further investment.
“Consumers love the convenience and sustainability credentials of our cans and, with the increased capacity this new line brings, we’ll be able to put even more of them in their hands this summer and in summers to come.”
Aluminium cans are 100% recyclable and on average contain 74% recycled material. Many of the cans used by Britvic also benefit from a considerably reduced carbon footprint due to their arrangement with metal packaging manufacturer Ardagh Group’s neighbouring factory, who send cans to Britvic through a tunnel linking the two factories.
