WINNER: COCA-COLA ENTERPRISES

Products: Branded soft drinks in bottle, PET and bag-in-a-box
Plant revenues or equivalent: Not available
Employees: 167
Highlights: Total Quality Management, process innovation, people
development

The transformation since then has been spectacular. For the criteria that matter to the group - quality, utilisation, yield, safety and housekeeping - Edmonton has topped the league table of its UK plants for the past 18 months, bringing down its cost per case by 15% since 1997: highly satisfactory financials for the parent.

Yet although CCE is in its own right a high-performing multinational, this is no clone-like implementation of a standard manufacturing formula laid down by the centre. Edmonton is quality and innovation with a distinct north London accent.

The starting point was a unique five-year partnership deal with the site's trade unions, which won a stable framework for the turnaround process.

The agreement was also a symbolic recognition of the importance of people, even in a highly capital-intensive business where a new bottling line costs up to pounds 15 million (Edmonton has seven, turning out 28 million cases a year). In a root-and-branch change, individuals have been multi-skilled and integrated teams developed. Like the management, they are mostly home-grown, feeding the plant's strong local character. 'Everything possible is decentralised and devolved down to team level,' says general manager Richard Davies, who has led the transformation effort from the beginning. …