Community impact and sustainability remain priorities for the iconic brand.
After more than 80 years of manufacturing in New Zealand, many Kiwis are still surprised to learn their bottle or can of Coke is made locally.
“What we’ve realised recently is that people have no idea we produce right here in Aotearoa,” says Wendy Rayner, Managing Director of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners New Zealand, which handles the preparation, packaging and distribution side of the business.
“We’re very passionate about the fact that we manufacture locally and the contribution that makes to New Zealand – financially and via employment in our communities, and so much more. We make, we move and we sell across Aotearoa.
“Coca-Cola in New Zealand employs around 1200 people from the top to the bottom of the motu. We have five sites where we make our products, but there’s actually over 30 locations where we might have a sales office or another kind of footprint. So we’re truly national.”
And that’s before you factor in the 20,000+ retail outlets across the country where the company’s beverages are sold.
“Our customers could be your corner dairy or local supermarket, petrol station, a bar or the local takeaway outlet, meaning we touch all different parts of our community,” says Rayner.
“Then you add the suppliers. A significant amount of our procurement is locally-based, we deal with thousands of suppliers every day. It’s a really great business in terms of understanding our country and what’s going on, and then what we can give back to our communities.”
Rayner says sustainability and giving back to the community are major priorities for Coca-Cola in New Zealand. This is achieved primarily via sustainable business practices, climate change-tackling initiatives and the Coca-Cola in the Community programme.
“We have a responsibility to minimise our footprint on the planet and our communities,” she says, adding the ambition is to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040, validated by the Science Based Targets initiative. Rayner acknowledges it’s challenging, but says progress is being made.
“We’re already doing some great work in this space. For example, our gas boiler in Christchurch has been turned into an electric one, and we’ve moved the majority of our forklifts from using LPG to electric. Through our latest collaboration with KiwiRail, we’ve taken 16 trucks per day off the road by moving more freight to rail. It’s a collaboration that shows why strong partnerships are so important.”
Rayner says she often meets with other Kiwi manufacturing MDs to share sustainability successes and challenges, as we “need to learn from each other”.
Already, all Coca-Cola manufacturing sites in New Zealand operate on 100% Meridian-certified renewable electricity.
In terms of packaging sustainability, since 2019 Coca-Cola NZ has been investing heavily in using recycled plastic in our bottles.
Although the country generally has a strong recycling culture, Rayner says we need to go further.
“We are absolute advocates of a Container Deposit or Container Return Scheme,” says Rayner.
“We support an industry-led, not-for-profit scheme that rewards people for returning empty plastic beverage bottles and cans so they can be recycled into new containers.
“And we know that Kiwis want it. Recent independent research shows 68% of Kiwis say a Container Return Scheme is long overdue.”
In the meantime, the company is taking steps to remove containers from the natural environment.
“Through The Coca-Cola Foundation, we’ve been working in partnership with Sea Cleaners for a number of years to make sure that litter, including our packaging, is removed from the sea and waterways. But our real focus is on preventing it from getting there in the first place.”
Coca-Cola in New Zealand also has a partnership with Styx Living Laboratory Trust in Christchurch. “It’s really close to our manufacturing site there and we’ve been doing some tree planting and biodiversity work around our site.”
It’s one of several community initiatives Coca-Cola supports across the country. “It comes back to being local. We want to positively make a difference in communities that we operate in.” Of course, one example will be familiar to many Kiwi families. “For over 30 years, we have been putting on Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park, this incredible icon of a free concert that we all love going to,” says Rayner.
Coca-Cola in New Zealand also has an employee programme called ‘Support My Cause’, aimed at encouraging staff to nominate charities they are passionate about and vote for those they’d like to see receive a financial grant. “We have a dedicated fund and we ask our employees: what would you like to spend it on? Then there’s an employee panel that determines which charities the money will be spread across.”
Schemes like these mean Coca-Cola is frequently recognised as one of New Zealand’s best employers, reflecting a strong culture of inclusion, safety and local pride.
“We run something we call Golden Bottles which are our long service awards where we celebrate our employees,” says Rayner, noting some staff have worked at the company for 50 years.
“Not that we limit it at 50!” says Rayner. “But so far, that’s our record. I don’t think people make the choice to spend that length of time with you if they don’t love it and see something really magical about it.”
Learn more about Coca-Cola’s legacy, impact and partnerships in New Zealand at the Coca-Cola Sustainability Hub. And don’t forget to recycle every bottle and can.