Coca-Cola bottler Arca Continental has opened a new production line at its plant in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to increase its production in the country by 35% to 40 million units.

The Mexican company has invested $20m in the new line, in addition to the investments it made in the country in the past two years.

Since 2010, the company has invested over $70m in its three bottling plants in Ecuador for upgrade of equipment, machinery and infrastructure and information technology and logistics and distribution systems.

Ark Continental South America CEO Alejandro Gonzalez said, "This investment is part of our overall plan to strengthen our operations in Ecuador and Argentina, in seeking to streamline our processes and at the same time supporting our sustainability strategy."

According to Arca, the advanced technologies in the new plant will support the company’s sustainability efforts through 16% reduction in electricity consumption, and 30% decrease in the weight of PET containers.

The new production line’s advanced machinery for PET bottle blowing, labelling and filling has a production rate of 48,000 bottles per hour.
Arca Continental, based in Monterrey, Mexico, was formed with the merger of Arca and Grupo Continental in 2011. In addition to production, distribution and sale of Coca-Cola’s soft drinks brands, Arca produces and distributes branded salty snacks Bokados.

The company has markets in northern and western Mexico and Ecuador and in the northern region of Argentina.