MEXICO CITY, March 21 (Reuters) - Mexican bottler Arca Continental said on Thursday that it plans to hike its investments by 32% year-over-year to 17 billion pesos ($1.02 billion), looking to solidify its operations across markets.

Arca, Latin America's second-largest Coca-Cola bottler, will spend just over half of those funds in Mexico, its largest market. The remaining 45% of the funds will be split between the United States and South America.

In 2023, the company spent 12.85 billion pesos, less than the 14.5 billion pesos it had originally planned to spend. ($1 = 16.6785 Mexican pesos) (Reporting by Noe Torres; editing by Cassandra Garrison)