Coca-Cola cuts 4,000 jobs (to begin with)

Coca-Cola is cutting 4,000 jobs in the United States and Canada, while a similar exercise may be coming in many other countries as well.

From 17 units down to 9

The soft drinks producer stated it needs to take “strategic steps” to change its organisational structure. Nine operational units will take the place of the current seventeen. These will be divided into the four geographical segments and have the overarching branches ‘global ventures’ and ‘bottling investments’. A ‘platform services organisation’ will coordinate data management, consumer analysis, e-commerce and social/digital hubs.

From now on, management wil be divided into new categories per product category. Five worldwide categories are created in order to focus resources: flagship Coca-Cola, Sparkling Flavors, Hydration/Sports/Coffee/Tea, Nutrition/Juice/Milk/Plant and Emerging Categories.

4,000 jobs in phase 1

“We have been on a multi-year journey to transform our organization”, CEO James Quincey explained in a press statement: “The changes in our operating model will shift our marketing to drive more growth and put execution closer to customers and consumers while prioritizing a portfolio of strong brands and a disciplined innovation framework. As we implement these changes, we’re continuing to evolve our organization, which will include significant changes in the structure of our workforce.”

The exercise involves a substantial job loss: The Coca-Cola Company starts a campaign to get 4,000 employees to leave voluntarily, hoping to reduce the number of redundancies. The 4,000 is, however, a number for just the United States and Canada. In a next phase, Coca-Cola will also cut jobs in the rest of the world.