Coca-Cola puts a break on its bottling plant in UP

Coca-Cola India has been going through a bumpy ride, recently, the beverages company has been ordered to stop the operations of its bottling plant in UP by Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board. Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB), Coca-Cola India’s bottling unit, has put a break on its one of the biggest bottling plant installed at Dasna, Uttar Pradesh, as the mandatory 'consent to operate' has been withheld by the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board.

Two of the board officials informed that the plant has been non-operational since July 30. The permission to operate has been stalled on grounds of not having certain mandatory environmental requirements.

However, an email sent to the Coca-Cola spokesperson didn’t elicit any response. This suspension may be temporary as the department is in the talking terms with the company to chalk out a fruitful way to resolve the matter, said another official.

This is not the first time that the company has come under the scanner of environmental department. Earlier, its three plants in Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Meghalaya had been asked to stop their operations after the department cited consolidation of operations and absence of long-term economic viability as the reasons.

In all, Coca-Cola runs 54 plants in the country, split between franchisees, company-owned ones and co-packers. Coca-Cola posted 3 per cent year-onyear unit case volume growth in the April-June 2016 quarter.