Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) is spending up big in Papua New Guinea because Papua New Guineans are buying its products like never before.

Coca-Cola Amatil PNG General Manager Peter Carey addressing guests at the official opening of the CCA Port Moresby Manufacturing Facility opening in May 2012

So strong was the PNG performance in the 2011 financial year that CCA Chairman David Gonski singled it out in the annual report, saying ‘CCA’s record 2011 profit result was driven by strong performances from the Indonesian and PNG operations.’

Indeed, PNG’s individual performance is underscored by the fact that its executives scored a 129% rise in the metric used to calculate their performance-based pay for that year, the largest rise of any group in the company.

CCA has just finished a 34 million kina (US$16 million) capital spend that has given it a cutting-edge, automated production line in Port Moresby to help service growing demand in the south of the country. Now it is planning a five-year, 230 million kina (US$108 million) redevelopment of its Lae production base that will provide capacity to deal with strong PNG demand growth until 2020 and push its employment levels in the country to 1500.

‘We’re probably looking at employing 100 extra people a year for the next five years, so that means we’ll have 1500 in five years’ time,’ says CCA’s PNG General Manager Peter Carey. CCA justifies that sort of investment with reference to the strong growth it has experienced in the recent past. ‘It’s quite exciting the way the business has been growing, with volumes up 10% annually for the last five years,’ says Carey.

The investment at Lae will boost output on the product lines already in place there and add new lines to the current product offering of soft drinks in PET bottles, water, cordials, fruit juices and canned soft drinks. While there is growth for CCA throughout the whole country, the Highlands region is the sweet spot at the moment as resource development boost activity in the area.

First published in Made in PNG 2012