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Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages Celebrates Century Long Commitment in Abilene
Abilene’s local Coca-Cola bottler, Arca Continental Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages, is celebrating 120 years in Abilene by doing exactly what it does every day–turning out everyone’s favorite beverage products, volunteering in the community and donating countless bottles of water and soft drinks to worthy causes. Working with local partners is a trademark of the Abilene team as recognizable as the familiar red and white logo or the bubbly beverage it’s known for.
“We try to get involved in the community as much as possible,” said David Eldridge, Area Director of Sales and Operation, Arca Continental Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages. No brand is better known worldwide than Coca-Cola, but Abilenians may not know that the company has been a part of the city since 1904 when it opened a plant on Pine Street. Abilene was just 23 years old in 1904–barely past its horse and buggy days–and Coca-Cola itself was just 18 years old.
The city of Abilene and the local bottling facility have come a long way since those milestone years. Abilene is a bustling hub with a population of 125,000. The Coca-Cola facility is now part of Arca Continental Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages (CCSWB), the local Coca-Cola bottler that serves Texas and parts of Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arkansas.
The CCSWB facility has been located on Highway 351 north of Abilene since 1974. From that spot, three production lines churn out a vast number of servings each day on a 24/7 schedule, shutting down only for Thanksgiving and Christmas. This production facility also plays a crucial role for Coca-Cola bottlers across the U.S., as it is responsible for the production of limited products and flavors, including the newly released Coca-Cola Oreo beverage. A nearby 700,000 square-foot warehouse holds products that are shipped throughout the entire Panhandle to the Midland/Odessa area and beyond.
But CCSWB associates do much more for the city of Abilene than produce the world’s favorite soft drink. They are active in the Abilene Chamber of Commerce and volunteer for a range of
nonprofits, like Abilene Boys and Girls Club and Big Brothers Big Sisters. The company donates soft drinks and water to local events like the West Texas Fair & Rodeo, as well as nonprofits like the Food Bank of West Central Texas, Marine Corps Toys for Tots and Global Samaritan Resources, which is housed in a building on South First Street that once was the Coca-Cola facility.
Another way CCSWB Abilene gets involved with the community is through tours of its facility. Local Boy Scout troops love to sign up for a tour, and each year food science students from Texas Tech University come to Abilene for their own tour.
As members of the local community, CCSWB associates are proud to be part of an organization that supports the city where they live and work. Employees like Eldridge and Garrett Dussia, CCSWB Plant Manager II, are graduates of Leadership Abilene. Dussia was stationed at Dyess AFB from 2011 to 2017 and proudly notes that veterans make up 10 percent of the local facility’s workforce. Veterans are honored with beautifully cast commemorative coins denoting service in specific theaters. “We have several employees who have 15 or 20 coins,” said Deborah Hays, CCSWB Administrative Assistant, who has held five different jobs in her 51 years with the local facility.
What the public might also see is CCSWB Abilene’s emphasis on protecting the local environment in and around the city. Everything is recycled, from aluminum cans to cardboard boxes. Zero waste goes into the Abilene landfill. “We maintain 100 percent (recycling), which is great,” Dussia said.
CCSWB also donates 55-gallon syrup drums to the city for rain barrels that are given to residents, sponsors a recycling program called Cantastic Night at the West Texas Fair & Rodeo and has donated 50 laptops each to Ben Richey Boys Ranch and Hendrick Home for Children.
A milestone for the Abilene facility came two years ago when a contract was signed with Abilene Christian University to be the sole provider of beverages on campus. Eldridge was especially proud of that feat since the university’s football stadium is within eyesight of the plant. “As the local bottler, we always want to support regional landmarks like ACU.”
The Coca-Cola bottler has a long and proud history in Abilene, dating back to the city’s infancy. Its current 400 employees are a vital part of the city and proudly contribute their time in support of numerous nonprofits. As much as CCSWB gives back to Abilene, Eldridge, the Area Director for Sales and Operations, says his team looks for opportunities to do even more. “We’re always open for any kind of help to the community.”
To learn more about CCSWB and the associates at the Abilene facility, visit www.cocacolaswb.com/underthecap.
By Loretta Fulton
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