18 Dec 2008 New Delhi: Soft drink major Coca-Cola India is deferring annual increments for all employees by a quarter and freezing increments of top
management, following a communication from its headquarters in Atlanta to all regions.
The US-based Coca-Cola Company has further said that increments of senior management will be put off by a year. In addition, regions have been asked to minimise travel costs of executives as far as possible, and resort to practices such as video conferencing instead.
This is for the first time that increments have been deferred in Coca-Cola India. The decision will impact close to 200 people in the company, all of whom report to President and CEO Atul Singh. The usual practice in the company has been to give annual increments effective April 1, for all employees. But next year, annual increments will be given out in the month of July.
A Coca-Cola India spokesperson said in response to an ET query, “The senior leadership of the company has taken the lead by forgoing their merit increases for ‘09. It has also been decided to delay the merit increase for all other employees by one quarter.”
It is learnt that a slew of cost-cutting initiatives are being implemented by the company at a local level to counter the prevailing economic downturn. Costs are being pruned across each of the divisions and forthcoming scheduled product launches are expected to be delayed.
Till third quarter this year, The Coca-Cola Company had bucked the downturn. The beverage maker had posted a 14% volumes increase in the July-September ‘08 period, driven mainly by international operations. Coca-Cola India had reported 18% increase in unit case volume sales in the same quarter.
But analysts from Morgan Stanley now say that the slowdown could impact volume growth of all liquid refreshment beverage companies in the forthcoming quarters, since consumers are dining out less and drinking more tap water.
Source:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Jobs/Coke_defers_hikes
management, following a communication from its headquarters in Atlanta to all regions.
The US-based Coca-Cola Company has further said that increments of senior management will be put off by a year. In addition, regions have been asked to minimise travel costs of executives as far as possible, and resort to practices such as video conferencing instead.
This is for the first time that increments have been deferred in Coca-Cola India. The decision will impact close to 200 people in the company, all of whom report to President and CEO Atul Singh. The usual practice in the company has been to give annual increments effective April 1, for all employees. But next year, annual increments will be given out in the month of July.
A Coca-Cola India spokesperson said in response to an ET query, “The senior leadership of the company has taken the lead by forgoing their merit increases for ‘09. It has also been decided to delay the merit increase for all other employees by one quarter.”
It is learnt that a slew of cost-cutting initiatives are being implemented by the company at a local level to counter the prevailing economic downturn. Costs are being pruned across each of the divisions and forthcoming scheduled product launches are expected to be delayed.
Till third quarter this year, The Coca-Cola Company had bucked the downturn. The beverage maker had posted a 14% volumes increase in the July-September ‘08 period, driven mainly by international operations. Coca-Cola India had reported 18% increase in unit case volume sales in the same quarter.
But analysts from Morgan Stanley now say that the slowdown could impact volume growth of all liquid refreshment beverage companies in the forthcoming quarters, since consumers are dining out less and drinking more tap water.
Source:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Jobs/Coke_defers_hikes
