Atlanta Coca-Cola Bottling Company celebrated the Grand Opening of its new $86 million sales center at 4913 Mason Road in Union City on Friday, January 31.   The 456,000 square foot facility – which includes a sales and distribution center, warehouse, fleet shop, administrative offices and meeting space – represents one of the largest investments in a sales center in the U.S. Coca-Cola System.  It sets a new standard in warehouse systems for the beverage industry, utilizing state-of-the-art technology that benefits both employees and customers.

The South Metro Sales Center will serve more than 10,000 customers throughout Atlanta who refresh some 2.8 million consumers annually with beverages from the expansive Coca-Cola portfolio.  The facility, which has been operating since the end of 2019, serves the following counties in metro Atlanta:  Carroll, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, Dekalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, Newton, Paulding, Rockdale, Spalding, and Walton.

“We’re absolutely ecstatic about the state-of-the-art Coca-Cola UNITED facility joining our community and becoming part of the Union City family,” said Vince Williams, Mayor of Union City. “The strong investment of over $80 million dollars proves they’re serious about a committed relationship with the Atlanta metro area and the Union City community!”

Approximately 750 employees work at the facility.

State-of-the-Art Facility

The South Metro Sales Center sets a new standard in technology for a beverage sales and distribution center.  It uses a “Vertique” warehousing system, manufactured by System Logistics, which turns the case picking process into an organized, more ergonomic and efficient sequential operation, with less stress on associates and not as labor intensive.  The design of the facility also accounts for harmony in people movement, truck logistics and product flow.  A new Easy Pallet system provides efficient flow of operations and people and minimizes the number of touches to the product before reaching customer shelves.

Approximately 36 million cases of beverages will be loaded annually out of the facility, which includes a 375,000 square-foot warehouse; a 25,000 square foot fleet maintenance area; 36,000 square feet of administration space, and a 20,000 square foot service department for equipment and vending repair.

Sustainable and Socially Responsible Construction Process

“In both the design and construction of South Metro, we took into account how the facility would impact our local community,” said Stan Ellington, vice president of supply chain and operations for Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED.  “We wanted the facility to blend in harmony with the community by incorporating benefits such as noise reduction, low level lighting, landscape buffers and plantings and, of course, procedures to assure safe traffic flow.     

In addition, in coordination with general contractor, Brasfield and Gorrie, the company achieved a 20 percent MBE/WBE/DBE participation (Minority/Women/Disadvantaged Business Enterprise) through job fairs and community outreach.”

Coca-Cola UNITED’s commitment to Atlanta and State of Georgia

In the past five years, Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED has invested more than $145 million in Georgia, with about 90% of that investment in the Atlanta metro area.  Atlanta is the largest single market in Coca-Cola UNITED’s six state territory, with some 2,100 associates.  In addition to this major investment in Atlanta, Coca-Cola UNITED recently broke ground on a future $60 million sales and distribution center in Tifton, which is in south Georgia, and is planned to open by the end of 2021.