Coke Florida Expands Manufacturing Leadership

Promotes Leroy Yancey, Jr. to Vice President - Manufacturing

TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Coca-Cola Beverages Florida, LLC (“Coke Florida”), announces the promotion of Leroy Yancey, Jr. to Vice President, Manufacturing. In this newly created role, Leroy will oversee Coke Florida’s significant manufacturing operation across its exclusive Florida territory that includes facilities in Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa. The company produces more than 100 million cases of non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages annually.

Since its first acquisition of manufacturing operations in 2016, Coke Florida has made significant investments in modernizing its manufacturing facilities to ensure reliability and to unlock efficiencies and capacity to support future growth.

“Manufacturing is a key element in our fully integrated, end-to-end, commercial strategy,” shared Thomas Benford, Coke Florida’s President. “Our ability to locally manufacture the products that our customers and consumers desire is essential to our business and our long-term growth.”

Leroy has more than 10 years’ experience with the Coca-Cola system having served in various roles in manufacturing operations and continuous improvement. He joined Coke Florida in 2017 as Plant Manager of the Tampa manufacturing facility which received the prestigious Coca-Cola System President’s Award under his leadership. He most recently served as Director of Manufacturing Continuous Improvement. In this role, Leroy delivered over $70 million in manufacturing improvements by leveraging technology and process improvements to modernize the work environment for Coke Florida associates. Prior to joining Coke Florida, he held key roles at The Coca-Cola Company’s Main Street manufacturing plant in Auburndale, Florida. Leroy holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Christian Brothers University.

Jason Reed, Senior Vice President, Product Supply Network for Coke Florida added, “Coke Florida has invested over $100 million in our manufacturing capabilities. These investments are a solid demonstration of our overall commitment to having a reliable and highly capable network to better service our customers and meet consumer desires, and much of the investment work has been accomplished through Leroy’s leadership.” Reed continued, “ We are seeing continued, increased demand for our products and Leroy’s leadership will be vital to our ongoing manufacturing operations and investments.”

In his new role, Mr. Yancey will focus on leading Coke Florida’s manufacturing team by providing strategic guidance, helping to build organizational capability, improving processes, and developing great leadership.

About Coca-Cola Beverages Florida, LLC

Coca-Cola Beverages Florida, LLC (Coke Florida) is a family-owned independent Coca-Cola bottler. Coke Florida’s exclusive sales and distribution territory covers over 20 million consumers across 47 Florida counties, and includes the major metropolitan markets of Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa. Coke Florida markets, sells, manufactures, distributes, and merchandises over 600 products of The Coca-Cola Company and other partner companies. The company is the third largest privately held and the sixth largest independent Coca-Cola bottler in the United States. The company is also one of the largest Black-owned businesses in the United States. Coke Florida was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida.