The merger creating the world’s largest independent
Coca-Cola European Partners will serve more than 300 million consumers across 13 countries in Western Europe, including the region’s four largest markets for nonalcoholic ready-to-drink (NARTD) beverages: Germany, Spain, Great Britain and France. The landmark deal combines the complementary strengths and local relationships of the three partner bottlers, positioning the
"We will have a 4,000-strong sales force that will make more than 12 million customer visits every year. So we see this as a great platform to capture growth through our local connections."
The London-headquartered company, which will be publicly traded starting this week on the Euronext Amsterdam, Euronext London, the New York Stock Exchange and Spanish Stock Exchange, will employ approximately 25,000 people.
We spoke with Sol Daurella, chairman of
The deal to create
We’re extremely excited about this merger, which we see as a growth opportunity for the
In 2013, you led the integration of eight
I was fortunate to oversee that merger, which not only drove efficiencies but returned the Iberian
For example, our integration general manager for
We’ve met 13 times over the last 280 days to get ready for the first day of the new business. We also set up an integration management office with more than 100 people. My key learning these last few years is that you have to be inclusive. You need everyone to engage with the new organization and the plans you want to put in place. It’s important to have a merger of equals like the one we have here.
Your grandfather became a bottler in Spain back in 1951. Is
Indeed. We bring more than 60 years of
What complementary strengths do the three partner bottlers bring to the table?
For example, the German bottler (CCEG) is way ahead when it comes to working with hard discounters. In Spain, we’re great at working with smaller customers through feet on the street and in our commercial approach. And CCE is very good at supply chain management. We’re ready to build on these best practices, serve the market and serve our customers together –the people who sell Coke directly and those who help sell Coke – from day one.
Why is now the time for such a significant bottling consolidation effort in Europe?
This is a very different world, and a very different Europe today. Over time, the
"We are projecting between 315 and 340 million euros in synergies and cost efficiencies."
Since then, the system has modernized both in terms of production and distribution, and the scale of our customers has expanded significantly. Before, we only had small mom-and-pop customers. Our structure is still very capable of serving small customers at the local level, but now we have large customers we have to serve across Europe. Consumer trends are pan-European now, too. We see a great opportunity through this merger to serve customers more effectively – and by channel as well as by geography.
How will this bottler fuel innovation in such a critical territory for the Coke business?
The
From an operations standpoint, how will this structure drive efficiency and cost savings?
We are projecting between 315 and 340 million euros in synergies and cost efficiencies. We’ve already seen the first good examples of how we can standardize best practices in supply chain and procurement such as light-weighting our 1.5ltr PET bottles and improving our execution of in-store merchandising by building smaller product pallets.
We’ve talked a lot about how this will benefit customers. Looking a bit further downstream, what can the
For starters, we’ll be scaling products across Europe faster and more effectively than we were able to do as three separate bottlers. So the consumer in Europe will benefit from a much greater availability of a wider range of leading brands from The
What are your initial priorities over the first six months?
As I said, we’re prepared to hit the ground running on day one. Our first priority is to minimise disruption when it comes to day-to-day operation. There are obviously many IT and financial systems powering an integration of this scope behind the scenes. Many people who help sell Coke and support our front-line heroes need functions and tools to help them do their day-to-day jobs. So our first objective is to continue business as usual and ensure a seamless transition for our customers and consumers.
Looking ahead, we have very robust plans in place for the next six months. Thanks to our experience over the last few years, we’re prepared. We’ll be engaging teams across the organization – from all functions and all countries – and creating a network of teams to drive efficiency and share best practices to fuel reinvestment and, ultimately, the growth we know we can capture. We’re beginning what we know will be an exciting chapter for the
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