Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Inc. has built "New Hiroshima Plant" in Mihara City, Hiroshima Prefecture where Hongo Plant was located. The new plant began operations on Monday, June 1, 2020 to replace Hongo plant that was severely damaged by the heavy rains in western Japan in July, 2018.

Hongo Plant and Mihara City in Hiroshima Prefecture

Hongo Plant was constructed in Mihara City, Hiroshima Prefecture as a key plant of former Sanyo Coca-Cola Bottling in 1973. Since its construction, it has delivered beverages to many people as one of the plants with the largest manufacturing capacity in Japan. Hongo Automated Warehouse, which is a neighboring warehouse of Hongo Plant, was also a large automated warehouse where the series of operations from the inbound item deliveries to stacking them was all automated to reduce the need for manpower and increase productivity in order to alleviate labor shortage in the logistics industry. It served pivotal roles with Hongo Plant in supplying the products in Chugoku and Shikoku areas.

Mihara City, which is located in the south of Hiroshima Prefecture, has a population of approximately 100,000 people, and is an important transportation hub with an airport, station of Shinkansen, and seaport. The city is also known for the many ruins of the Jomon, Yayoi, and Tumulus Periods and the history that Takayoshi Kohayakawa, a feudal warlord who appears in the anecdote of "Three Pillars of Stability", laid the foundation of development.

Heavy rains in western Japan caused one of Japan's largest manufacturing plants and automated warehouses to shut down

Nuta River, which runs through the center of Mihara City, was flooded by the heavy rains in western Japan. The flooding caused widespread damage and forced Hongo Plant to suspend operations. The water entered in the warehouse reached up to 2.5m high, and the pallets used to carry products were washed away.

The first in Japan! Hongo Automated Warehouse is back with a 50-meter-tall automated building

After the heavy rains in western Japan, Mihara City began to move toward reconstruction and reopened operations of JR Sanyo Line in about 2 months. With the cooperation of the local community, we have restored Hongo Automated Warehouse and resumed operations on April 27, 2020 with Japan’s first 50-meter-tall building and the capacity to store 12,000 pallets.

New Hiroshima Plant with the latest IoT technology

The new plant is located about 4 km south of the Hongo Automated Warehouse. By automating the production line and introducing the latest IoT technology, the Hongo Plant is expected to have even more productivity and efficiency in process control than the past. In addition, Hiroshima Plant is the first plant that we have constructed since the construction of the Ebino Plant in 2005.

2 new aseptic lines that can produce 900 bottles per minute have been added to the production lines for small and large PET bottle beverages (*), and the production capacity of Hongo Plant has increased by about 1.5 times.

The aseptic lines fill bottles in aseptic conditions and do not require the heating process (retort sterilization) so that they can enhance the aroma of coffee and tea. Also, elimination of the heating process enabled the use of thin and light bottles and reduced CO₂ emissions during transport, which made the production more environmentally friendly.

In closing, we would like to share the comments of Bruce Herbert, Executive Officer and Head of SCM, on the start of operations in Hiroshima Plant.