Coca-Cola to invest 4 bln USD in China by 2017

Coca-Cola will invest 4 billion U.S. dollars into its China operations over the next three years, announced chair and CEO Muhtar Kent, on Friday at the site of a new plant in Hebei Province, north China.

The new round of investment follows 9 billion dollars by the beverage giant between 1979 and 2014.

"China is our third largest market by volume and is critically important to the future growth of our business," said Muhtar Kent.

At a cost of 56 million U.S. dollars, once complete, the new Huabei plant, located in Xianghe county in north China's Hebei Province, will feature nine production lines, and produce a total of 250 million unit cases annually, Kent said.

By 2017, the new 50,000-square meter plant will have four production lines, adding 100 million unit cases to annual production in China.

Following the groundbreaking of a new plant in central China two weeks ago, the Huabei plant is the second Coca-Cola plant to be built under the new investment plan.

"We are committed to investing and growing here. Apart from infrastructure and system development, the new round of investment will focus on enhancing consumer experiences through marketing and [projects with] our loyal retail partners," Kent said.

In addition, Coca-Cola's local bottling partners -- COFCO Coca-Cola Beverages, Swire Beverages and Coca-Cola Bottling Investments Group China -- will also invest in local infrastructure and growth drivers, including new investments in production, distribution and marketing.

Coca-Cola's sales volume has continued to grow in China, up by 6 percent in the second quarter of 2015 over the same period last year. Endi