Coke Florida buys 400,000-square foot warehouse, plans $30M investment

WINTER HAVEN — Coca-Cola Beverages Florida is expanding its footprint and reach with a new 407,000-square-foot warehouse in Polk County.

The warehouse is in Winter Haven’s Central Florida Intermodal Logistics Center, an industrial hub with access to Interstate 4, U.S. 27 and State Road 60 as well as a CSX rail lines.

Coke Florida, as its known, says in a release that buying the warehouse and the 37-acres of land it sit on “significantly expands operational capacity and positions the company to meet the demands of the fast-growing customer and consumer base of Polk County and surrounding areas.”

A $30 million build-out is underway and is supposed to be done by early next year.

A spokeswoman for Coke Florida did not respond to an email seeking information on what, if any, changes to its current facilities would change as part of the expansion.

The Tampa-based company began servicing 2,500 customers, who make up about 7 million cases per year, out of the new facility in September. The facility, even though it's still being built out, "has already expanded to support the work of over 3 million incremental cases," according to the release.

Coke Florida currently employs 200 at the new facility and expects to hire another 100 jobs in the next 12 months.

Jeff Ortmeier, Coke Florida’s vice president of field franchise operations, says in the release that “being centrally located and expanding our network capacity in such a significant way allows us to better serve our customers and consumers statewide.” said.

Coke Florida, according to its website, serves 20 million consumers in 47 counties in the state, including Tampa, Jacksonville, Miami and Orlando. It makes and distributes more than 600 products for Coca-Cola and other companies.