Coke’s largest bottler Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB) may fire 200-250 senior and middle-level executives. The company says that a re-organisation of corporate centre resources will make some jobs redundant and claims that the re-jig will create several hundred new jobs.
This could turn out to be the biggest management churn in global beverage giant Coca-Cola’s history in India. HCCB will now operate under seven zones instead of the current five.
The reorganisation will however make a few existing jobs redundant, the incumbents of which will be encouraged to apply for the new jobs that have been created. The retrenchment process is expected to affect major functions at the company, including HR, special projects, sustainability, route-to-market and alternate beverages.
Executives in departments such as, IT and finance are also being affected. In the last two years, HCCB has shut down plants in Jorhat (Assam), Byrnihat (Meghalaya), Kaladera (Jaipur), Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Moula Ali (Telangana) and Hospet (Karnataka).
HCCB currently owns and operates 21 factories across the country and closed the financial year ending March 2017 with a revenue of Rs 9,472 crore.
The restructuring at HCCB comes at a time when cola makers in India are struggling to keep up with shifting consumer preferences for healthier beverages.