News
Meet The Markets: Introducing France
17/08/2023
At Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, we serve 2 million customers across 29 countries.
Our CCEP Meet The Markets series shines a spotlight on our great teams across the regions in which we operate.
With less than one year to the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, what better time to take Meet the Markets to France, ahead of the biggest event ever organised in the country.
CCEP FRANCE
The first bottle of Coca-Cola was imported to Bordeaux, France in 1919.
With a team of 2,500 colleagues today, over 90% of CCEP drinks consumed in France are produced in one our five factories across the country.
CCEP is a major player in the non-alcoholic beverage sector in the country, and with a population of around 65 million, 8 out of 10 French households consume our products.
As we approach the Paris 2024 Olympics and expect a surge in the demand for our products, it’s important we can continue to deliver great service and be ready to meet the needs of our customers and consumers.
Serving 400,000 outlets across the country, we ensure consumers have their favourite drink, whether they’re strolling the city streets of Paris, skiing down the Alps or enjoying a beverage on the beach. Our team of Field Sales colleagues are crucial to delivering this wide-reaching service.
Following a €30 million investment in our biggest plant in Socx last year, we’ve also recently announced a €114 million multi-year investment project at our Grigny site.
This will further help us meet customer demand by increasing storage capacity, optimising manufacturing processes and modernising the site's infrastructure.
KEY FACTS AND FIGURES
Paris 2024 Olympics
As the oldest partner of the International Olympic Committee (since 1928), Coca-Cola is the proud worldwide partner of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Our role at CCEP will be to refresh all of the athletes, volunteers and spectators during the Games with our loved brands - all done in a sustainable way.
Preparation for the Games has already begun as we expect the volume of drinks we sell during this time to increase significantly. Our ambition is to deliver over 18 million beverages to 15,000 athletes, 45,000 volunteers and over 15 million visitors, raising excitement and passion for our brands, while challenging ourselves to be even more sustainable and accelerate progress on key societal issues such as youth employment.
Paris 2024 done sustainably
- Nearly 700 beverage dispensers will be positioned at points of sale for the general public, as well as in restaurants in the Olympic and Paralympic Villages hosting athletes and volunteers. Following the Games these will be re-installed for use by our customers
- A selection of the events will be equipped with returnable glass bottles
- On many sites, equipment will be set up for full collection of our bottles
- We’re decarbonising much of our logistics by using a fleet of vehicles with no use of fossil fuels, including the use of electric trucks
Supporting disadvantaged young people
Through our three-year partnership with Sport dans la Ville, France’s leading non-profit charity serving disadvantaged youth through sports and job readiness training, 50 young people will get the opportunity to work at our various venues during the Olympic Games 2024 on paid short-term contracts.
An additional 50 young people will also get the chance to carry the Olympic flame.
SUSTAINABILITY
At CCEP, we are determined to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2040. Our sustainability plan, This Is Forward, sets out our ambitions and direction as we look for new ways to limit our climate and environmental impact and reduce our plastic packaging across our portfolio.
Since 2013, we have reduced our carbon consumption in France by 22,000 tons and we’re committed to making further progress to achieve our ambitions.
- Packaging
- Water
- Supply Chain
- Society
Packaging
In France, 47% of our carbon emissions come from our packaging so we’re working hard to decarbonise it.
Reduce
- Replaced plastic film on cans with a new cardboard clip saving 900 ton
s of plastic per year. - Launched attached caps on our lighter PET bottles to improve recycling of caps.
Recycle
- We use 60% recycled aluminium in our cans and 100% rPET for all of our 500ml bottles. By 2030, we are committed to moving towards 100% rPET bottles across all bottle formats.
- Having received an investment of €8.7 million in 2013, our Infineo joint venture with Plastipak now produces 48,000 tons of recycled PET each year.
Reuse
- We’ve used returnable glass bottles for Coca-Cola for many years in cafes, hotels and restaurants. In 2022 we switched all of our other brands to returnable glass bottles. Once used, these bottles are returned to us to be washed and refilled - up to 25 times.
- We are also testing refillable glass and PET models in supermarkets for both Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar.
Water
Water
Water is one of the key ingredients of our products. But it is also one of the most valuable resources on our planet. To preserve it, we are committed to acting on three key areas: the protection of resources, the reduction of our consumption and the restitution of the water used.
Since 2010, we have improved our water efficiency by across all of our French sites and have one of the lowest water use ratios in the sector (1.33l for 1l of drink).
We plan to restore a canal in the Moëres region near Dunkirk - an area that is suffering from drought episodes. The project is financed by public partners, alongside CCEP France and the Coca-Cola Foundation, who contribute $500,000 (€465,790). As a result, a minimum of 300,000m3 of water will be made accessible to serve the activities of the local basin, and for the protection of biodiversity and the environment.
*As measured via our annual water use ratio. Water use ratio is calculated as the total water withdrawals divided by total production volumes from CCEP production facilities within the reporting period. More information is available here.
Supply Chain
Supply Chain
Making our production facilities more energy efficient and reducing their carbon emissions is another key focus. All our sites in France already operate with 100% green electricity, with our sites at Castanet and Les Pennes using solar panels. We will also invest in our Grigny site to install 3,500m2 of solar panels so that we can generate renewable electricity onsite.
We’re also moving towards 100% hybrid and electric vehicles for our Field Technicians, Field Sales and head office colleagues from this year, developing options for rail-based transport, starting to test hydrogen with our transport supplier and supporting customers to limit their climate impact.
One way in which we are doing this is by working to improve the energy efficiency of our fleet by providing refrigerated equipment which use LEDs and energy saver boxers, and ensuring that all new coolers purchased in 2022 were hydrofluorocarbon (HFC)-free. Refurbishment of this equipment is also supporting our sustainability goals.
Society
Society
We are determined to make a positive difference in our local communities.
- We support young people from disadvantaged areas on their pathway to employment by:
- Signing an agreement with ’PAQTE’ and ‘1 jeune 1 solution’ and the government
- Partnering with Sport dans La Ville to support young people to build their skills and secure employment.
- Creating a programme ‘Passeport to Employment’ with Le Réseau where we invite students to our sites and head office to learn about jobs at CCEP and open up new opportunities
- Long term partner of Special Olympics France, with over 400 employees from the Coca-Cola System recently completing the Triathlon Deauville alongside a group of Special Olympics athletes, sponsored by CCEP France.
OUR BRANDS
VOLUME MIX
77%
Coca-Cola TM
12%
Flavours, Mixers & Energy
1%
Hydration
10%
RTD, Tea/Coffee, Juice & Others
*Data covers France and Monaco as detailed in our 2022 Factsheet here.
CHANNEL MIX
70% of our business in France is driven through grocery retailers and discounter stores, with the remaining 30% coming from outlets like bars, restaurants and cafes.* As part of our efforts to meet this demand, we have established a strong network of coolers in France, including:
- 94,696 coolers
- 3,177 dispensers (including the Compass Freestyle machine)
- 1,846 vending machines
*Data covers France and Monaco as detailed in our 2022 Factsheet here.
PACKAGING MIX
*Data covers France and Monaco as detailed in our 2022 Factsheet here.
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
Building a Great Place to Work
Our vision is to be an organisation where everyone is welcome to be themselves, be valued and belong - focusing on all areas of diversity including gender, culture and heritage, age and disability.
We were recognised as a Top Employer in France for the second consecutive year by the Top Employers Institute, an independent international authority that certifies excellence in human resource practices. And we’re proud to be a member of L’Autre Cercle association for LGBT+ inclusion.
- 4.9% of our workforce have a disability
- 47% of our colleagues at senior manager level and above are women
- 200 interns and work-study students are recruited every year
CCEP France is the leading producer and distributor of soft drinks in France. Our ambition is to become the preferred supplier of our customers, while developing our activities in the heart of the French territories.
We are also determined to play our part in the global effort to limit climate change. Our priority is to act on packaging, which is responsible for approximately 50% of our greenhouse gas emissions. Our strategy is to reduce, recycle and reuse. Key areas of particular focus are the acceleration of returnable glass and the increasing incorporation of recycled materials in our packaging.
We’re proud to be part of a company that values great service, great people and great beverages.