WORKERS at Coleford' s Ribena factory are celebrating an £18 million investment in their new bottling plant.

Parent company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Consumer Healthcare have announced the cash injection.

It comes on top of the £70 million investment in a new bottling facility which opened last year to produces bottles for Lucozade and Ribena which are made in the Forest.

The company say the investment will mean the new plant will be more sensitive to customer demand.

The new line uses recycled plastic PET bottles which are manufactured at Coleford and will also include the capability to produce a range of new multipack products.

Coleford manager Rob Baxter said: "This additional £18 million investment in a new plant at Coleford in 2012 is a huge step forward in terms of continually improving our efficiency and providing a highly responsive service for our customers who often need deliveries at short notice.

"This further investment, on top of the £70 million investment last year, demonstrates GSK's confidence in the ongoing success of well-loved brands like Lucozade and Ribena and the continued development of our manufacturing facility at Coleford."

The Coleford plant already has one of the largest in-house bottle manufacturing operations in Europe. GSK say it has already delivered significant cost savings in terms of reduced transportation costs, reduced plastic use and reduced energy expenditure .

The costs of transporting plastic bottles have been reduced by 85 per cent.

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