Coca-Cola Amatil has officially re-opened its $A165m ($116m) bottling facility in Richlands, Queensland.

The newly expanded facility will produce a wide range of sparkling and still beverages, including juices, teas, alcohol and dairy drinks.

It will have a production capacity of more than 90 million unit cases each year for national and export markets.

Queensland’s Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said: “Queensland has gained an international reputation as a great place to do business which is why Coca-Cola Amatil has developed this $165m vote of confidence in Queensland.

“Queensland has low operating costs, a skilled and adaptable workforce, the lowest payroll tax in the nation, generous research and development (R&D) incentives, excellent transport infrastructure close to Asia and other export links, as well as a dynamic and stable economy that is expected to reach 3% growth this financial year.”

The new bottling facility in Richlands will serve as the exclusive Australian bottling and distribution centre for Coke’s century-old contour glass bottles.

“We needed to modernise and invest to maintain competitiveness in the market.”

It will also make all of Amatil’s Australian dairy range and continue to export Barista Brothers and Powerade to New Zealand.

The expanded facility will feature a 30,000m² distribution centre with a capacity of 45,000 pallets. It is also expected to lower operating costs and reduce materials handling.

Coca-Cola Amatil’s group managing director Alison Watkins said: “This site was selected after a nationwide review, which identified that we needed to modernise and invest to maintain competitiveness in the market.

“Of all the locations we looked at, Richlands offered the strongest combination of road and port access, efficiency in production, access to east-coast markets and room to grow.”

The Richlands site also features a SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) system, which increases the visibility of operations while better matching supply with demand.

A new glass production line at the site has already been commissioned, and the expanded dairy capability is expected to come online by Q2 2019.