Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED is investing $106 million to expand and modernize its warehouse operations in Alexandria, Louisiana, with plans to build a new 300,000-square-foot facility on 36 acres next to its current distribution center at 7400 Coliseum Blvd. The company announced the project at a press conference, saying the expansion will create 50 direct jobs without eliminating any existing positions at the site.
The new jobs will pay an average annual salary of $65,000, which Louisiana Economic Development says is roughly 26% higher than the average wage in Rapides Parish, where the median household income sits at $54,967 across a population of about 127,500, according to Grow with Alexandria. Beyond the direct hires, the agency estimates the project will generate 84 indirect jobs while securing the retention of 2,120 existing Coca-Cola UNITED positions across the state, per a Louisiana Economic Development news release. As reported by New Orleans CityBusiness, the company will also list Alexandria job openings on its own careers site.
A State Incentive Package Built To Keep The Investment Local
To help land the project, Louisiana Economic Development offered Coca-Cola UNITED an incentive package that includes $1 million from the Economic Development Award Program for infrastructure improvements, along with participation in the state's High Impact Jobs Program and workforce training support through LED FastStart, according to Site Selection Magazine. The package reflects a familiar playbook among state economic development agencies, which frequently pair infrastructure grants with custom workforce training to keep major employers reinvesting locally rather than shifting capital elsewhere in a company's regional footprint.
Locally, city officials say the construction phase alone will bring a wave of short-term work. The multi-year construction and installation process is expected to generate approximately 200 temporary construction jobs in the Alexandria area, per the City of Alexandria.
Automation Aimed At Easing Physical Strain, Not Cutting Jobs
At the center of the new warehouse will be the Vertique system, an automated warehouse technology that uses an integrated network of conveyors, software, and machinery to pick cases and build mixed pallets sequentially. Scott McCallister, Coca-Cola's vice president for the West region, said the system reduces physical strain on associates and creates more jobs requiring higher skill levels. The Alexandria installation will mark the ninth Vertique system placed within Coca-Cola's Southeast footprint, a sign of how far the automated platform, originally developed by System Logistics, has spread across the bottler's distribution network since it first appeared in company facilities years ago.
Alexandria Mayor Jacques Roy said the company's growth creates new opportunities and reinforces the city's reputation as a place to do business. Coca-Cola UNITED has said it plans to support its associates, serve the community, and grow across Central Louisiana as the project moves forward.
Timeline Stretches Into 2028, With Deep Local Roots Behind It
Construction on the warehouse is scheduled to break ground on February 27, 2027, and take about one year to complete. The Vertique system itself is expected to be delivered in February 2028, with full commercial operations slated to begin in Fall 2028.
The investment builds on a relationship between Coca-Cola and Alexandria that stretches back more than 120 years, with the company's initial local distribution presence dating to around 1906, according to Biz New Orleans. Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED, founded in 1902 and headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is the third-largest Coca-Cola bottler in the United States and the nation's largest privately held bottler, employing roughly 10,000 workers across six Southeastern states, per Forbes.
The Alexandria project follows a similar modernization push elsewhere in the company's territory. In May 2024, Coca-Cola UNITED announced a separate $330 million investment for a new facility in Birmingham aimed at creating 50 new jobs while retaining more than 750 positions, part of what Wikipedia describes as a broader multi-state network upgrade. Taken together, the two projects point to a company betting on automation to modernize aging distribution hubs while holding onto the workforce it already has.
