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Tag: T Krishnakumar

  • Coca-Cola India identifies West Bengal as one of its key growth markets

    Coca-Cola India identifies West Bengal as one of its key growth markets

    MUMBAI: Taking forward its vision to become a ‘Total Beverage Company with strong local roots’, Coca-Cola India announced West Bengal as its key growth market and unveiled strategic plans to showcase commitment to the state. West Bengal is the first Indian state where the entire portfolio and marketing initiatives of Coca-Cola’s brands have been hyper-localized to resonate with local language and suit consumer preferences. The initiative begins with West Bengal and would extend nationally with local execution in other states. The company also announced its partnership with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to turn up the excitement of the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for fans in Bengal.

    Coca-Cola India is deeply intertwined with the vibrancy of West Bengal through its relationship with music, sports, food, festival and culture. Consumers in West Bengal have a special love for Coca-Cola beverages, making it a priority market for the company. The initiative has been developed in line with local affinity and preferences of consumers in West Bengal and their strong emotional connect with their culture.

    Speaking at the launch of the initiative,  Coca-Cola India and South West Asia President T Krishnakumar said, “West Bengal is a vital part of our India story, and we will continue to build for the state by customizing our brand and product propositions with an improved understanding of the local consumers’ consumption patterns and desires. West Bengal has and always will remain close to our hearts and with this initiative, we aim to showcase our gratitude by celebrating the unique, diverse culture of Bengal with our differentiated offerings and continued investment. We are initiating this as a pilot in West Bengal and plan to extend this nationally with local execution in other states”

    To kickstart the initiative, Coca-Cola has rolled out Bengali packaging labels for all beverages across its portfolio, which includes Coke, Sprite, Thums Up, Maaza, Fanta, Limca, Kinley, and Minute Maid. Each brand will devise a hyperlocal campaign to deepen connect and bring on-ground experience alive for consumers in Bengal.
    > Coca-Cola India senior VP Shehnaz Gill added “The initiative is built on the premise of creating joyful moments that are of true cultural significance in West Bengal. We will engage with consumers across multiple touchpoints using three key pillars: Language & Culture, Festivals, and Passion Points such as Cricket, Food, Music etc. Coca-Cola India’s hyper-local strategy will reflect in the marketing mix, packaging, advertising, social media activations and a range of on-ground events across portfolio. This will be further anchored in a strong marketing framework to create an edge while keeping the consumers’ sensibilities at the forefront of all decisions.”

    As part of the initiative, Coca-Cola is tapping consumer passion moments such as Language and Cricket to build a strong emotional connect and cultural relevance. The pride for Bengali language is ubiquitous across West Bengal and Coca-Cola fueled the excitement by rekindling the love for storytelling during International Mother Language Day. Consumers were invited to participate in the contest by sharing their love for the language through short poems, tiny tales, and haikus. The winning entries were shared on Coca-Cola’s social media handles and also featured on Radio Mirchi by RJ Somak. Brand Coca-Cola will be the official beverage partner with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to turn up the excitement of the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for fans in Bengal. A host of activities are planned both in stadium, as well as across the state to engage consumers and create unique experiences.

  • ICC, Coca-Cola enter into five-year global strategic partnership till 2023

    ICC, Coca-Cola enter into five-year global strategic partnership till 2023

    MUMBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) and Coca-Cola announced their five-year global strategic partnership on 30 January 2019. The partnership will see The Coca-Cola Company’s brands becoming exclusive non-alcoholic beverage partners of the ICC until 2023.

    The five-year agreement includes all ICC events around the world including the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 in England and Wales, the ICC men’s and women’s T20 World Cups in Australia in 2020, the ICC Women’s World Cup 2021 in New Zealand and the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in India in 2023 amongst other global tournaments.

    Speaking on the occasion, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia president T Krishnakumar said, “Cricket is a global sport and a passion shared by more than a billion people across gender, generations and cultures. In-line with our long history of partnering with major sporting events globally, our strategic partnership with ICC, reinforces our long-standing commitment to refresh sports fans and enhance their entertainment experience. We look forward to delighting our consumers with our diverse portfolio and engagement opportunities to create unique experiences for fans through the next five years and even beyond that.”

    Importantly, the partnership will strategically align both the ICC and The Coca-Cola Company for the long-term by combining the strength of The Coca-Cola Company’s diversified portfolio of over 500 brands as well as worldwide reach with ICC’s ambition to expand the sport’s footprint globally.

    Commenting on the partnership, ICC chief executive David Richardson said: “It is our pleasure to welcome Coca-Cola on board as an ICC partner for the next five years. As one of the world’s biggest sports with more than 1 billion fans, we are delighted to partner with Coca-Cola, one of the biggest brands in the world. The ICC is committed to growing the game worldwide and the popularity of the three formats with pinnacle global events in each makes this an exciting time for major brands to be associated with our sport.”

    The Coca-Cola Company has an eight-decade long association with Olympics, four decades with the FIFA and nearly 25 years with World Cup Rugby. The associations stem from Coca-Cola’s philosophy of being part of consumers’ lives and their passions.

    India is a strategic market for TCCC and Coca-Cola India is well on its path to become the fifth largest volume market in the Coca-Cola system. Recently, Coca-Cola India celebrated its 25th-anniversary milestone in India and is focused on introducing innovative and localized beverages that suit the consumer tastes and preferences specific to the regions.

  • Coca-Cola India appoints Asha Sekhar as VP & chief digital officer

    Coca-Cola India appoints Asha Sekhar as VP & chief digital officer

    MUMBAI: Coca-Cola India, on Monday, announced the appointment of Asha Sekhar as its vice president and chief digital officer, India and South West Asia.
    Prior to this, she worked for over a decade with WPP, Universal McCann, Madison and Mudra, managing media businesses for leading brands. She has developed multi-level engagement with all key segments of the dynamic media landscape ranging from technology platforms to content distributors.
    Announcing the elevation, Coca-Cola president India and South West Asia T Krishnakumar said, “Digitalisation is disrupting all industries and redefining the ways companies connect, engage, communicate and do business. Asha’s expertise in delivering consumer-focused digital experience will help in our journey towards becoming more relevant and future ready.”
    Sekhar will report to Krishnakumar. In her previous role, as director – media, Coca-Cola India & South West Asia, she was pivotal in setting up a separate media function to efficiently leverage marketing efforts in an increasingly complex media landscape.
    In this newly created leadership role, which focuses on the company’s journey towards digital transformation, Asha will build foundations necessary for business growth, drive opportunities and strengthen Coca-Cola India’s digital ecosystem. In addition to her new responsibilities, Asha will continue to lead the media and allied marketing functions.
    “This new addition to the leadership team of Coca-Cola in India is designed to address developing business needs and reinforces our commitment towards investing in diversity and talent development,” he added.
    As a core part of the marketing function, Asha has been a significant change agent for driving media strategy. Some of her significant achievements include, the inception and later scale-up of Samvaad, an in-house digital experience center for Coca-Cola in India, that delivers consumer centricity for Coca-Cola’s brands, company and customers. She has also delivered some ‘industry-first’ pioneering projects and driven strategic media partnerships.

  • Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages elevates Gaurav Chaturvedi

    Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages elevates Gaurav Chaturvedi

    MUMBAI: Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, the company owned bottling partner of The Coca-Cola Company in India, has appointed Gaurav Chaturvedi as the new Human Resource vice president.

     

    Chaturvedi is currently the zonal VP, operations, Andhra Pradesh, the largest zone for HCCBPL in sales terms.

     

    Chaturvedi will take charge from 15 April and continue to report to HCCBPL CEO T Krishnakumar. This is the first time in two decades since Coca-Cola’s re-entry into India that a senior operations manager has been designated to take over the Human Resource responsibilities in the company. Chaturvedi replaces P V Ramna Murthy, who has decided to pursue opportunities outside the company.

     

    Speaking on the appointment, Krishnakumar said, “The bottling business is exemplified by intense operations where people are the most important asset and hence it helps to have a person who has worked through operations to be head of the people’s function. Gaurav has spent 16 years in various parts of operations of HCCB and hence is an excellent fit to manage the people’s function and take it to the next level of excellence”.

     

    Chaturvedi joined Coca-Cola in 1997 and over the last 16 years has held positions of responsibilities across functions and geographies. During the course of his career with the Coca-Cola System in India, he has headed a large plant (Wada), a sales territory (Nasik), two bottling units (East UP and West UP), and set up the Operational Excellence function across the country.

     

    As a part of the vision 2020 for India, HCCBPL is focusing on becoming a world class organisation, building a culture of execution excellence and driving returns.

     

    India is a key growth market for The Coca-Cola Company and the company envisages India as amongst the top five markets at the end of 2020. India is currently, the seventh largest market for The Coca-Cola Company, globally.

  • Coca-Cola India announces top level organisational changes

    Coca-Cola India announces top level organisational changes

    MUMBAI: Coca-Cola India has announced some key senior leadership changes, aligned with its long term plans of becoming one of the Coca-Cola company’s top five markets (in volume terms) by 2020. The Company is already committed to an investment of $ five billion to further capture growth opportunities in the Indian packaged beverage market.

    Announcing the senior leadership changes, deputy business unit president, India and South West Asia Venkatesh Kini said, “As we move into the next phase of our journey in India, we have a solid foundation and the necessary momentum in our business. We now need to have the scale and resources to capture latent growth. Building our talent pipeline and developing people capability is one of our key pillars for success. The new senior level management changes is a step in that direction. The entire team will work closely with our bottling partners to achieve our Vision 2020 goals in India.”

    The following are the key organisational changes effective 1 October, 2013. All these senior leaders of the company will report to Kini. There are no changes in the organisational structure at Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, led by its CEO T. Krishnakumar.

    Vikas Chawla, currently VP operations, is moving to Athens, taking over as the franchise operations head in South East Europe where he will lead operations for 12 European countries. This is yet another endorsement of the quality of talent in India. He adds to the list of 47 managers that the BU has exported to the global TCCC system.

     For a deeper focus on operations and aligned to achieving the business targets for 2020, Coca-Cola India will have two operation leaders going forward.

    Sumanta Datta, currently VP – customer and commercial leadership, will take over as vice president, Company Bottling Operations (including Delhi region and national key accounts). He will work closelywith the team at Hindustan Coca-Cola to deliver the volume and profitability targets for Coca-Cola India. Datta has been with the Coca-Cola system since 1995 in a variety of roles in marketing, operations, customer & commercial leadership, strategy in India as well as China. In his most recent role he has helped drive exponential growth in the national key accounts business.

    Bhupendra Suri, currently director, franchise operations, is being elevated as vice president – Franchise Bottling Operations. He will work with the 11 franchise bottlers in India and provide leadership and strategic direction to them. Suri has spent 17 years in India in a variety of functional and general management roles, with the company as well as the bottling operations.

    Andriy Avramenko, currently VP – juice, will take over as vice president strategy and still beverages. Avramenko has had diverse experiences within Coca-Cola in strategy, mergers and acquisitions, business integration, supply chain and finance. Avramenko has been instrumental in putting the juice brands on a path of sustainable profitable growth in India and SWA over the past two years.

    Debabrata Mukherjee, currently vice president, strategy and still beverages, will take on the role of vice president, marketing and commercial. The marketing and commercial roles are being brought together under one head, for a deeper and combined focus on commercial and shopper marketing as well as product commercialisation.

    Mukherjee is a veteran of the Coca-Cola system, who joined the company in 1998. He has done a series of marketing and general management roles. He was the head of marketing for the company in Korea before coming back to India in 2011.

    Anupama Ahluwalia, currently VP marketing, will take up a short term leadership assignment with Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages to get direct experience within our bottling system. Upon completion of the assignment, Ahluwalia will then return to Coca-Cola India. He has led the marketing function for over two years, leading the creation of the iconic crazy for happiness campaign for Coca-Cola, achieved record market shares for the brand and led the company into the forefront of digital marketing by launching the social media center.