Coca-Cola Amatil Fiji factory at Laucala Beach back in production after receiving approval to manufacture

Coca-Cola Amatil Fiji says all employees that were on leave are now back to work after the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Commerce and Ministry of Health approved their permit to manufacture after having their production plant shut down for five weeks.

The company’s Leadership Team’s Lawrence Tikaram says those employees still on special leave will resume once majority of the retail business sector gets up and running.

Tikaram says the much required and welcomed strict guidelines by Government are now in place and their very own enhanced Coca-Cola World Wide COVID protocols, ensures their products continue to be enjoyed by all Fijians at the highest levels of safety ensuring quality in product standards and delivery.

Coca-Cola Amatil Fiji employs over 300 people in Fiji and continues to service 10 other countries including Tonga, Samoa, American Samoa, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Niue, Nauru, Wallis Futuna, Vanuatu and New Caledonia, with product supplies from its manufacturing plant at Laucala Beach in Nasinu.

Tikaram also says Coca-Cola Amatil Fiji has heavily invested over time in their manufacturing plant, systems, and their people to ensure in times like this, they can continue to operate their facilities with a very low touch point model with limited staff required on site to keep their production plant operating and the rest of the business operates virtually to embrace the new normal and service their customers in Fiji and Pacific wide.

He says they sincerely thank the Government for raising the bar to ensure all business operate at the highest safety levels to keep the wheels of our economy turning in these challenging times.

Tikaram also says majority of retail outlets Fiji wide were affected due to limited supply of Coca-Cola Amatil products.

He says like all other businesses, they were greatly affected as they were not able to manufacture for five weeks but they were very fortunate to have limited stocks to distribute under a limited capacity in the restricted zones through strict guidelines approved by the Ministry of Health. Tikaram says over the five weeks, they can confidently say majority of their staff were kept employed through various HR schemes put into place and where staff were adversely affected,they were supported as well by the Company in weekly supply of food ration packs and other HR support services.