BILLINGS — Coca-Cola Bottling Company High Country is now operating in Billings, two years after the company broke ground for the manufacturing and distribution facility on Harnish Boulevard.
“We're very excited for this opportunity. This is going to be huge for everybody,” said the High Country Chief Operating Officer Karen Satrang on Wednesday.
The 182,600-square-foot facility had a price tag of nearly $100 million and is High Country's largest investment to date.
“So, we’re a family-owned business, and my grandfather's the one who founded our company back in 1956 when he bought half interest,” said the Vice President of Corporate Affairs Tura Synhorst.
Synhorst is the third of four generations working for the family business that has its headquarters in Rapid City, South Dakota. They are one of 63 independent manufacturing companies for Coca-Cola products in the country.
“We thought it would be amazing to have the opportunity to actually manufacture at this facility,” Synhorst said. “Adding this new facility, we actually added 50 new jobs here in Billings to the community. And then we also retained our existing 60 jobs. So, in total, about 110 people on average working here at this facility.”
Coca-Cola Bottling Company High Country employs 224 people in Montana.
At the new facility, they will fill thousands of bottles and cans a day.
"We should be able to run the can filler at about 1,100 cans a minute and the bottle line will run over 600 bottles a minute,” Satrang said.
The public is invited to tour the new facility at 1830 Harnish Blvd. from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
“We're going to be doing tours of the facility. We want to give people a chance to really see firsthand how our products are bottled and canned,” Synhorst said.
