Suntory Oceania has kickstarted production at its new multi-beverage manufacturing facility ahead of the drinks group's launch mid next year. Costing more than $400 million to construct, the 17-hectare carbon-neutral site has been described by Chief Supply Chain Officer Ian Roberts as “the largest single FMCG investment in Australia in over a decade” and will serve as a manufacturing and distribution hub for the Suntory Oceania's multi-beverage portfolio of 40+ brands.
“The start of production at our world-class facility represents a pivotal moment for Suntory Oceania,” said Darren Fullerton, CEO at Suntory Beverage & Food Oceania.
“With this new site we are well positioned to disrupt and ignite the category with our full multi-beverage offering.”
Suntory Oceania - a $3 billion partnership between Beam Suntory and Frucor Suntory - has kickstarted its production with some of its non-alcoholic beverage brands ahead of transitioning into alcoholic production around the end of June next year, following the separation of CCEP and Beam Suntory. Once launched, Suntory Oceania is expected to become the fourth largest beverage group in Australia and New Zealand.
The first product off the production line at the Ipswich facility was V Energy.
Darren Fullerton said, “full ownership of our supply chain will enable more capacity, more control and most importantly, more opportunity to innovate… We are excited about the growth this will unlock for Suntory in the region, and the opportunities we will be able to offer our people, our customers, and our consumers.”
Entirely carbon-neutral, the Queensland facility boasts features such as a capacity to hold more than 50,000 pallets of product, a high-speed glass line, and two canning lines that fill at a rate of 180,000 cans per hour. In May, Suntory Oceania announced the details of the 7000 solar panels - collectively stretching 14km - that will power the facility.
Fullerton said, “this commitment to sustainability and Growing for Good goes to the heart of Suntory’s DNA and I’m so proud that we can deliver on this commitment here in Oceania.”
Mark Hill, Managing Director at Suntory Global Spirits Oceania, added: “Our Queensland facility complements our global production footprint, which includes distilleries and bottling sites in North America, Europe, and Japan, and will expand our capability and capacity to deliver for our customers like never before.
“This facility is central to Suntory Oceania, and we are thrilled to be harnessing the region’s great local talent, strong infrastructure and connectivity to power this next phase of growth.”
Suntory’s Queensland facility is set to officially open mid next year, in line with the onset of alcohol production and the Suntory Oceania partnership. Since 2007 in Australia and 2015 in New Zealand, CCEP has been responsible for the sales and distribution of the Beam Suntory spirits portfolio and the manufacture, sales, and distribution of its RTD portfolio. This agreement will continue unchanged up until the contracts’ 2025 expiry dates on 30 June for Australia and 31 December for New Zealand.
Ahead of its launch, Suntory Oceania has issued a national recruitment callout to fill 130 permanent roles nationwide. The Ipswich facility alone will deliver 160 new permanent roles across manufacturing, distribution, and sales.
To learn more about employment opportunities at Suntory Oceania, click here.
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