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ustralia-based Coca-Cola Amatil Indonesia (CCAI), the producer and distributor of the Coca-Cola brand for the Asia-Pacific region, plans to invest up to US$500 million over three to four years to maintain its business growth in the country, a senior executive says.

CCAI finance director Stuart Comino said on Tuesday that the company would allocate 25 percent of total new investment on cooler units throughout the market, while the remaining 75 percent would be for manufacturing infrastructure.

'€œIn the past, the majority of expenditure has been in manufacturing infrastructure capacity. But today, logistic capacity and the availability of refrigeration units are important as well,'€ he said at the opening of a regional distribution center in Cibitung, West Java.

CCAI will spend about $90 million this year, comprising $40 million for a new production plant and warehouse in Semarang, Central Java, $20 million for a new carbonated soft drink production line in Surabaya, East Java, and $30 million for a new mineral water production line in Cibitung.

Over the past five years, the company has spent more than $155 million on its biggest production plant in Cibitung, West Java, of which $15 million was used for the construction of a regional distribution center. Both the plant and the distribution center occupy a total of 80,000 square meters.

CCAI president director Erich Rey said the company had decided to invest so much in the country in order to enable the company to take advantage of the promising business opportunities in the country.

'€œWe believe in Indonesia because this is the country where we will grow. With all the investment, we expect growth in all areas [production, logistics, sales, etc.],'€ he added.

According to Coca-Cola Amatil'€™s 2012 financial report, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea recorded the highest sales in volume compared to any other countries served, including Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. Indonesia recorded 10.3 percent growth with almost all major brands performing well, including Coke, Sprite and Fanta.

Rey expected that the sales growth of the company would remain above 10 percent this year and would still be the market leader of carbonated soft drinks in Indonesia.

To achieve the growth target and to make its products even more popular to maintain its market share, the company plans to add 50,000 cooler units across Indonesia this year to make sure that the products are available to all customers, especially during Ramadhan and the Idul Fitri holiday.

'€œWe have production capacity over the market demand, but making sure that our products are available in the market is very important,'€ Comino said.

According to the latest report of UK-based market research company Kantar Worldpanel on 2013'€™s global top 50 brands, Coca-Cola is the top global brand, which was purchased 5.3 billion times last year. Based on the data, Coca-Cola has been purchased 23 million times a year in Indonesia with a penetration rate of 22.4 percent of total population. (koi)