Beverage giant Coca-Cola Co. (KO: Quote) said Monday it will reorganize around three major businesses, consolidating global operations into North American and international divisions. A seperate business will handle bottling.
The company named leaders of the their streamlined Coca-Cola International, Coca-Cola Americas and Bottling Investments Group businesses, all of whom will debut on January 1, 2013.
"This is the right structure for the next phase of our journey toward achieving our 2020 Vision. Over the last couple of years, we have systematically been adapting our business model to better address the changing demands of the global marketplace," Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent said in a statement.
The company noted that Coca-Cola International will consist of its Europe, Pacific and Eurasia & Africa operations, while Coca-Cola Americas will consist of the company's North America and Latin America operations. Meanwhile, Bottling Investments Group will oversee the company-owned bottling operations outside of North America.
Atlanta, Georgia-based Coca-Cola has named Ahmet Bozer as president of Coca-Cola International, and Steve Cahillane as the president of Coca-Cola Americas. Meanwhile, Irial Finan will remain the president of BIG. All three will continue to report directly to Kent.
Bozer is currently the president of the Eurasia & Africa Group, and Cahillane is currently the president and CEO Coca-Cola Refreshments or CCR.
Bozer joined Coca-Cola in Atlanta in 1990 as a financial control manager, and Cahillane, with more than 20 years experience in international beverage sales, marketing and distribution, joined Coca-Cola as president and CEO of CCR in 2010.
Meanwhile, Finan, with more than 30 years of experience in the Coca-Cola system, joined the company in 2004 as president of BIG and was then named executive vice president in October 2004.
"By consolidating leadership of our global operations under two large, but similar sized geographic regions and BIG, we will streamline reporting lines, intensify our focus on key markets and create a structure that leverages synergies and gives us flexibility to strategically adjust our business within those geographies in the future," Kent added.
The company has been constantly restructuring itself in its bid to achieve its 2020 Vision. According to the company, "First, we addressed the issues facing our system in our flagship market through the acquisition of CCE North America. Second, we further built the relevance of BIG, evolving it from its initial role of fixing challenging markets to a more significant role in spearheading our progress in select strategic markets such as China and India."
In Monday's regular trading session, KO is currently trading at $80.20, down $0.19 or 0.24% on a volume of 0.37 million shares. In the past 52-week period, the stock has been trading in a range of $63.34 to $80.24.
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by RTT Staff Writer
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