“The sunniest location in Germany”: 50 years of Coca Cola in Fürstenfeldbruck
Created: 06/28/2022, 09:33
By: Thomas Steinhardt
Patricia Irion heads the Coca-Cola branch.
The location is 50 years old.
© Kai Bublitz
Coca Cola and Fürstenfeldbruck: the two have been practically inseparable for many years.
Fürstenfeldbruck - This year the location in the western part of the city will be 50 years young.
An interview with site manager Patricia Irion.
The Brucker Coca-Cola branch was built 50 years ago. What was the decisive factor in the choice of location?
Of course, I can't say exactly because we can no longer speak to the decision-makers today.
But it is probably the case that the supply for the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972 ultimately played a decisive role in the choice.
Today we are not only the sunniest location in Germany, but above all very well connected to supply Upper and Lower Bavaria, Swabia, Allgäu and the Upper Palatinate with over 200 million bottles a year and also to refresh the Munich metropolitan region.
All of this within a radius of 200 kilometers.
I am therefore more than satisfied with the choice of location of my predecessors!
How has the branch in Fürstenfeldbruck developed since then? (number of employees, buildings, machines, output)?
On an area of 90,000 square meters, more than 400 employees help to refresh our customers in the southern Bavarian region.
Today we bottle 15 Coca-Cola drinks at the site.
This includes classics such as Coca Cola, Coca Cola Zero Sugar and Fanta, but also special varieties such as Fanta Mandarine without sugar or Coca Cola Vanilla.
On the three production lines at the site, the drinks come in bottles of various sizes, where variety is a top priority: A total of six different bottles run on the three lines: In the returnable area, 0.2 and 0.33 liter returnable glass bottles are produced for the Gastronomy filled as well as 0.5 liter glass bottles and 1 liter returnable PET bottles for retail.
Small and large PET bottles up to a size of 1.25 liters roll off the assembly line in non-returnable filling.
Like all companies, Coca Cola is likely to have been affected by the corona pandemic. How did your branch in Fürstenfeldbruck get through the pandemic?
All in all, I can only draw a positive conclusion: By adhering to all hygiene measures and with great discipline on the part of the employees, we got through the pandemic in very good health and only had a few failures, which did not lead to major chains of infection.
Due to the lockdown in 2020, however, we had to go on short-time work for a few weeks.
This was the first time that this was necessary at the Fürstenfeldbruck site.
But all of our employees took that very sympathetically.
Coca Cola FFB always supports the local fire brigades. Why actually?
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This is because the local fire brigades are very important to us as Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), especially in the event of an emergency.
We work very closely with them and conduct regular emergency exercises where the fire brigades can train how to behave in an emergency.
In an emergency, close cooperation between us and the fire services is vital.
On this basis, we are happy to support the fire brigades where we can.
Coca Cola is bottled in Bruck. But not just Coca Cola, right?
As already mentioned, in Fürstenfeldbruck we also bottle other drinks than just the classic Coca Cola.
To be precise, Coca Cola light, Coca Cola Zero Sugar, Coca Cola light decaffeinated, Coca Cola light Lemon, Coca Cola Zero Sugar decaffeinated, Coca Cola Vanilla, Coca-Cola Cherry, Fanta Orange, Fanta Zero, Fanta Mandarine without sugar, mezzo mix, mezzo mix zero, sprite and sprite zero.
What is your personal favorite drink?
I prefer to reach for the Fanta - and I like it in all its variations.
When it's very hot, it can also be an ice-cold 0.2-liter glass of Coke Classic.
Does the current energy and raw material crisis affect your location?
Like all other companies, we have to work with rising energy costs.
Other than that, there haven't been any significant effects that I can report on so far.
Coca Cola has had its own exit from the B 471 in Fürstenfeldbruck for years. How do you see the future of the location?
(
By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular
FFB newsletter.)
As already mentioned, from Fürstenfeldbruck we supply the entire south of Germany, including the metropolitan region of Munich and some holiday areas, with refreshing drinks from Coca-Cola.
Therefore, we are an important producer and supplier here in the region.
It is also important to us to continue to address sustainability aspects.
A point that is becoming more and more important, especially with a view to the future, and must therefore be tackled today.
Since 2018, we have been saving unnecessary emissions with our e-truck fleet and are getting closer and closer to our ideal in the sense of a circular economy: zero waste.
How are you celebrating the 50th anniversary? is there a party
In September we will host a day for families and friends to give back to all employees.
Although March marked our 50th anniversary, we made a conscious decision to move this celebration to late summer - not only because of the hopefully better weather, but also because of the even more tense Corona situation in March.
On this day we will also invite some politicians and offer a tour of our plant.
Also interesting:
the Fürstenfeldbruck air base on its way to a civilian future
You can find more current news from the district of Fürstenfeldbruck at Merkur.de/Fürstenfeldbruck.
