Coca-Cola to close Marburg site

COCA-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA) has confirmed that it will close its Port Shepstone factory and depot on March 6.

The good news for the 146 employees who will be affected by the closure is that none of them will be retrenched or negatively affected from a financial point of view.

A spokesman for the company said CCBSA was in the final stages of consultation with the employees, all of whom would be redeployed to Durban, Port Elizabeth or other company sites.

This would present the affected staff member with greater opportunities for promotion and career growth, the spokesman said.

An example of this was the significant investment CCBSA had made to its plant in Phoenix, Durban. This had created a number of new positions for Port Shepstone employees.

Asked why the Port Shepstone plant was closing the spokesman said CCBSA had made the difficult decision to decommission this operating site to mitigate a number of factors.

These included the low growth rate of the South African economy and unprecedented increases in some raw material costs. CCBSA would, however, maintain a presence in this area.

“It is important to note that we will retain a sales office in Port Shepstone for the local sales team, which we are planning to grow in numbers in the coming months and years,” the spokesman said.

In addition, as part of its Local Distribution Partner (LDP) programme, CCBSA would work with local entrepreneurs to establish distribution services by converting existing distribution partners to LDP partners.

This meant the markets currently serviced out of Port Shepstone would in future be fully supplied and serviced from Durban as well as by the local distribution partners.

The bad news for the South Coast is that the plant closure will result in this area losing some 146 skilled people and their families, representing a blow to both the South Coast’s skills bank and the local economy.

The loss of the CCBSA plant will affect this area in other ways. The factory and depot has been very much part of the community since it first opened in 1984 as it has sponsored and supported many local sporting and charity fund-raising events.

For many years its famous Waya Waya Truck, a bright red mobile stage and sound system, was a notable presence at almost every large South Coast community gathering.

At one stage, every November local child welfare societies celebrated National Children’s Day with parades, parties and all sorts of ambitious family-orientated fund-raisers – and Coca Cola Port Shepstone, particularly its Waya Waya Truck, was often part of the proceedings.

The spokesman assured the South Coast Herald that it had a fully-fledged eventing team that operated along the east coast. CCBSA would continue to play an active role in numerous events in this region.

Furthermore, the company’s investment in terms of the development of communities where it did business remained a priority for CCBSA.

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