The Coca-Cola Company has opened the first Coca-Cola bottling plant in Gaza, in alliance with its Palestine-based bottling partner, the National Beverage Company (NBC).

The new plant will house 270 employees and is expected to indirectly support more than 2,700 households in Gaza.

The plant will see an investment of $20m and will expand the Palestinian operations of NBC to four bottling plants and four distribution centres.

“We believe that strong businesses can enable strong communities.”

NBC started bottling for Coca-Cola in 1998, and currently employs 600 people.

The 15,000m² plant will feature a single bottling line, able to fill around 36,000 returnable glass bottles per hour with Coca-Cola sparkling beverages.

More than 4,000 Gazan community outlets will receive the beverages, through 18 branded trucks.

The company also intends to increase the number of its employees from an existing 120 to 270 over the next three years with introduction of new bottling lines and delivery trucks to the plant.

The Coca-Cola Company chairman and chief executive officer Muhtar Kent said: “National Beverage Company and Coca-Cola share great pride in having been part of the fabric of Palestinian communities for almost 18 years and our new Gaza plant shows our ongoing commitment to investing in and supporting progress in communities around the world.

“We believe that strong businesses can enable strong communities and we are delighted to welcome new Gazan employees, distributors and retailers to our Coca-Cola system.”

The plant first commenced production in April 2016 and has now reached full capacity.

NBC founder and chairman Zahi Khouri said: “Ever since NBC first began operations, we have been firmly committed to building a successful Palestinian business that can create employment opportunities, support the national economy and demonstrate the great capabilities of our region while serving products of the very highest quality.

“The opening of our first Gaza plant is an important milestone on this journey.”

Image: Coca-Cola and NBC inaugurate first bottling plant in Gaza. Photo: courtesy of The Coca-Cola Company