Innocent Drinks Starts Building CO2-neutral Factory in Rotterdam
Official welcome of the sustainable juice maker to the Rotterdam Food Hub
Rotterdam Mayor Aboutaleb, right, and innocent CEO Douglas Lamont mix the first smoothie
British company Innocent Drinks, a subsidiary of Coca-Cola, officially marked the start of construction of its CO2-neutral factory at the new Rotterdam Food Hub on September 19. Rotterdam Mayor Aboutaleb welcomed the innocent factory in a festive manner by activating a blender together with innocent CEO Douglas Lamont. When ‘The Blender’, which will also be the name of the factory, is at full production capacity, it can produce 400 million bottles of healthy drinks per year.
Over the past four years, a lot of work has been done on construction plans for this new factory. Sustainability is a high priority in all phases of the project. innocent is changing the traditional way of building, designing and running a factory. By using reusable energy, using water in a sustainable manner and considering waste as a resource, innocent limits the CO2 emissions of the new factory. In addition, innocent strives for a healthy and pleasant working environment.
Sustainable agri/food production
Douglas Lamont, CEO of innocent drinks: “This is the beginning of an amazing adventure for our company. By building this sustainable factory we can show that it’s truly possible to massively reduce waste, use of water and energy, all whilst making it a great place to work. By doing this we hope to encourage greater change in the world. This feels like an amazing step forward.”
The location is sustainable as well: by choosing Rotterdam as the new home base, production takes place as close as possible to the place where the ingredients arrive. This means fewer kilometers have to be driven in order to make the smoothies. On an annual basis this location will save trucks over 13,000 trips.
Innocent is investing $250 million (€ 223 million) in the factory. It will be opened at the beginning of 2021 and production will start in the first quarter of 2021. In 2022, The Blender will be operating at full speed. Around 400 million bottles of chilled juice will be produced per year for in total 17 European countries.
Rotterdam Food Hub
innocent is the first company to establish itself in the Rotterdam Food Hub, the 60-hectare new business park on that the Port of Rotterdam Authority has specially set up to optimally facilitate companies from the agri/food sector. For example, the Rotterdam Food Hub will have access to several berths reserved for inland vessels. Additionally, the warehouses will be located directly at the quays, so that cooled and frozen cargo can be stored, processed or transported quickly.
Source: Innocent
24 September 2019