Swire Coca-Cola USA, which touts itself as the third-largest independent bottler in the U.S., expanded its 402,577-sq-ft headquarters in Draper, Utah, to keep up with its fast-paced growth over the last few years and allow for future expansion. Additions were made to office, warehousing and distribution space.

The expansion evolved on all four sides of the facility, coordinating new elements with the old. Materials such as masonry, brick, paint and flooring were procured to match the existing building. Many functions of the old building were expanded and relocated into the new sections.

The additions were built on a 87.6-acre site without interrupting operations. Hundreds of delivery trucks accessed the site daily. Major utility services had to be relocated, along with upgrades and additions to electrical service.

One new feature is the robotic "auto-pick" system designed to load several pallets of different Coca-Cola products from the inventory by inputting orders into the system's computer and eliminating the need for manual loading. Design and construction of the northern warehouse addition had to accommodate this large robotic system and required exact coordination to meet the auto-pick's power, data and lighting requirements.

Warehouse construction was critical to the schedule and needed to be done more quickly than other additions so the auto-pick installation could begin early and finish with the rest of the project. The project broke ground in April 2011 and aims to achieve LEED certification.

2013 Best Intermountain Manufacturing Project

Swire Coca-Cola USA Distribution Center

Draper, Utah

Key Players

Owner Swire Coca-Cola USA, Draper, Utah

Architect Architectural Nexus Inc., Salt Lake City

General Contractor Big-D Construction, Salt Lake City

Structural Engineer ARW Engineers, Ogden, Utah

Mechanical Engineer Colvin Engineering Associates Inc., Salt Lake City

Electrical Engineer Envision Engineering, Salt Lake City

Testing Services Consolidated Engineering Laboratories, Salt Lake City