Coca Cola, Ghana gets another bottling plant

Accra (Greater Accra) 25 Jan 2000

President Jerry John Rawlings on Tuesday commissioned a bottling plant for the Ghana Coca cola bottling Plant, the second in three years.

The company was formed in 1995 following the divestiture of the Bottling Division of the Ghana National Trading Corporation, with the President opening its first bottling plant located on the Spintex road.

The second plant started in April last year and estimated to cost 10 million dollars is capable of handling 45,000 bottles an hour.

''A little over three years ago, I had the privilege to commission this modern plant. Since that memorable occasion the company has made considerable progress by increasing its bottling facilities'', President Rawlings said.

He added ''this indicates our commitment to the divestiture programme and continued support for foreign joint-venture partnership in the Ghanaian economy''.

President Rawlings said Direct Foreign Investment inflows to Ghana over the period of 1994 to 1998 stood at 965.8 million dollars, representing an average annual inflow of 241.45 million dollars.

"This rate is attributed to investor confidence in Ghana's economy and it is my hope that more inflows will continue to come to Ghana".

He spoke about the fall in commodity prices which has dislocated the economy and said this should ginger the business community to process some of the country's raw materials.

The President said the government would continue to pursue policies to further improve the business environment to make it more attractive to both local and foreign investors.

President Rawlings commended Coca Cola Bottling Company for injecting over 12 billion cedis into the economy.

This amount was used for the local buying of plastic crates, glass bottles, crown corks, pallets, mini tables and kiosks, thereby, forging linkages with other sectors of the economy.

''This is the kind of linkages we expect from the big firms to move small scale industries along the path of growth".

Mr Dan Abodakpui, Minister of Trade-designate, said the performance of some divested state enterprises has vindicated the government's divestiture programme.

He said these enterprises have been re-capitalised and new technologies introduced, thus increasing employment.

Mr Abodakpi said the country is benefiting from technology transfer and employees have been trained to operate the state-of-the-art equipment.

Mr Mahamadou Sylla, Senior Region Manager for Coca Cola West Africa, said if current trends continue, a second bottling plant would be added to the one in Kumasi.

GRi../