On the outskirts of Brisbane, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners’ (CCEP) has unveiled its latest investment in its Richlands facility. The $75 million can line, primarily for Monster Energy products, is the largest line for CCEP globally, with the capability to process up to 120,000 cans per hour.
CCEP Australia managing director, Orlando Rodriguez, told Food & Drink Business the investment was the latest for the company’s local presence.
“Today celebrates the next huge milestone in our commitment to Australia. For almost 90 years we’ve been manufacturing and selling beverages that Australians know and love – and it culminates today, in a category that is absolutely exploding.
“Over the last 10 years we have doubled down on beverages, put our money where our mouth is, and invested more than $900 million in the Australian supply chain. It’s predominantly been in manufacturing, systems, and logistics, and there is more to come because we have confidence in Australia,” Rodriguez said.
Monster Energy senior vice president Oceania & South Pacific, Sam Thiele, said the decade-long partnership with CCEP has paid dividends, with the brand continuing to grow market share and choice.
“This category is absolutely booming, and I’m proud to say that over the last 10 years, Monster has been the primary driver of that category growth – and ultimately that has created more investment, local manufacturing, and jobs,” Thiele said.
The energy drinks category is growing in volume by almost 20 per cent year-on-year – with the rate projected to continue in the medium term.
Local federal member and speaker of the House of Representatives, Milton Dick, was onsite for the ribbon cutting. He told Food & Drink Business investment like CCEP’s was a “big shot in the arm” for manufacturing locally and across the country.
“Australia needs to be a place where we make things, and there can be no greater example that the food and beverage industry. I call this ground zero when it comes to making things in Australia, and while it is good to have the financial investment, the best part of this is local investment in jobs and the supply chain that comes with it,” Dick said.
Monster’s market momentum
The Australian energy drink market is now worth more than $2 billion and growing 20 per cent annually. Monster Energy products have almost 40 per cent volume share and contribute 40 per cent of the category's growth.
Thiele, told Food & Drink Business that barriers to entry are high in the category, and it has taken a decade of local and global investment to reach a tipping point.
“If you are an energy drink consumer, you will only be drinking Monster or one other brand, and that’s where you’ll stay,” Thiele said.
Sugar-free is leading the charge, accounting for 39 per cent of the market compared to less than 15 per cent five years ago. Zero Sugar energy is growing at more than 43 per cent year-on-year. Monster dominates in this space, holding the top six sugar-free SKUs in petrol and convenience and eight of the top 10 in grocery.
Even in a cost-of-living crisis, strong brands remain resilient.
“Consumers see Monster as an affordable luxury. When you look at the price point for beverages versus most things in society today… the consumption of high brand equity beverages is much less impacted,” Thiele said.
By the end of 2025, CCEP would have invested almost $1 billion across its Australian operations.
“We’re anchoring to geography so we can invest, make and sell locally,” Rodrigez said. “It’s a wonderful flywheel – investment creates jobs, which generates growth, and gives our partners confidence to invest in marketing.
“We are confident in the future. We believe in the country, and we will keep on investing. Our focus is on meeting consumers where they are, whether that’s value packs in price-sensitive areas, premium offerings in growth markets, or RTDs and energy drinks for younger demographics,” he said.
On the line
The line includes three new packers and AGVs that support possible pack formats but also provide greater versatility to respond to market shifts and the speed of the production line.
On the production floor, innovation is evident in efficiencies, precision, and speed, starting with an air-only can body rinser – a simple change that eliminates water use in cleaning and delivers immediate sustainability gains.
Every can then passes through a dual empty can inspection system. Using advanced imaging, it checks for defects such as dents, creases, missing or partial codes, and any foreign material. Cans that fail the inspection are automatically removed before they ever reach the filling and seaming stages, improving packaging and product quality integrity.
The heart of the system is the fully automated quality lane. Here, two critical packaging variables – fill level and seam integrity – are monitored using a state-of-the-art X-ray unit and robotic seam analyser. This setup delivers 20 times more seam checks than the previous manual process, while also conducting non-destructive testing, meaning compliant samples are returned to the production stream rather than discarded. The result is not only tighter quality control but also reduced waste and more data for predictive and autonomous maintenance.
The quality lane also houses a high-speed checkweigher capable of assessing 300 cans per hour – 30 times the data of traditional manual checks, which typically measured just 10 cans per hour. This level of monitoring allows for real-time adjustments, early fault detection, and improved consistency across every batch.
All up, the factory can produce 350 million cans of Monster Energy a year to meet current Australian demand, with capacity to add another 100 million to its output.
