The Coca-Cola Company’s 44th production facility in China has commenced operations.

Based in the Hunan Province, the COFCO Coca-Cola Huazhong Beverages plant is designed to house nine production lines and is the largest facility in Central China.

Out of the nine lines, four are for processing water products, four for sparkling beverages, and one for juice drinks. Four of these lines are currently operating, while all nine are expected to be up and running by 2020.

The Changsha plant is the first Coca-Cola facility in Hunan with non-sparkling beverage production lines.

With an expected annual production capacity of 1 billion liters of beverages, the new facility is expected to play a major role in expanding production of still beverages for the growing region.

"China is our third-largest market-by-volume, and we remain upbeat about the potential for growth throughout the market."

The Coca-Cola Company invested CNY320m ($41m) to build the plant, which is a key part of the company's plan to invest $4bn in China between 2015 and 2017.

Located in the Wangcheng Economic and Technological Development Zone, the facility follows green standards with a focus on the use of clean energy.

The Coca-Cola Company's chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Muhtar Kent said: “China is our third-largest market-by-volume, and we remain upbeat about the potential for growth throughout the market. Over the past few years, China’s consumer market has undergone significant structural changes and we have continued to invest and adapt to ensure we are best serving our consumers and customers in a fast-changing market.

“Earlier this month, we completed the majority of refranchising of company-owned bottling operations in China to strong local partners, including COFCO, which will leverage this new plant to further expand the reach of our growing beverage portfolio in central China.”