The multinational Coca-Cola, the manufacturer of the world’s best-selling soft drinks, announced a restructuring plan that will offer voluntary retirement to some 4,000 employees in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico and that can cost between 350 and 500 million euros. Dollars.
The offer of “retirement packages” will be available to employees who have been hired before September 1, 2017 and, in the press release the company, which has more than 160,000 employees worldwide, indicated that there will be similar offers in many of its international operations.
Already at the end of July, the Coca-Cola company had indicated that it would adjust its portfolio by eliminating what it described then as “zombie brands”, in order to focus on the best-selling and the most modest but with more potential.
James Quincey, Coca-Cola’s CEO, said that many of the company’s 400 brands exist in just one country and produce just 2% of total revenue.
“We are making changes to prioritize fewer brands but to be bigger and stronger in the range of consumer preferences,” Quincey said, adding that the company needs to “do a better job of sustaining and growing smaller, more promising brands. , leaving aside some zombie markings. “
The staff cuts also began in late July, when the firm ended the Odwalla brand of bottled juices, a decision affecting about 300 of the 900 jobs at that operation.
The company has chosen to strengthen investments in brands such as Minute Maid and Simply, and in new but rising product lines such as Topo Chico, a sparkling mineral water.
The restructuring was also motivated by the economic impact that the coronavirus pandemic has had on sales and consumption of soft drinks internationally.
gs (efe, EuropaPress, CNN)
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