Beverages major Coca-Cola has promoted Atul Singh, as the group president, Asia, from his current designation of deputy president of the Pacific Group.
A company statement said that Atul Singh will continue to report to, Ahmet C Bozer, executive vice president and president, Coca-Cola International.
This news comes as part of Coca-Cola’s decision to rename Pacific Group business unit to Asia Pacific business unit. “The formation of the new Asia operating unit will further sharpen the company’s focus on China, India and Indonesia – three critical markets that dominate this part of the world, and play an unparalleled role in achieving the 2020 Vision growth targets,” the statement said.
Venkatesh Kini, currently Deputy BU President, India and Southwest Asia (INSWA), will be appointed business unit president, INSWA. Both Kini and Manuel Arroyo, BU president, ASEAN, will report to Atul while Atul will continue to provide oversight to Greater China, Korea, BU until a successor is named at a later date.
The company also mentioned that these changes do not impact the organisation structure at Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd, the company owned bottling operations in India. Ahmet Bozer will continue to provide overall leadership to this group.
This group will consist of three operating units; the first is Asia which comprises Greater China and Korea BU (GC&K), India & Southwest Asia BU (INSWA) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations BU (ASEAN). Second is Japan BU and the third is South Pacific BU.
Last year, Coca-Cola announced that the company and its bottling partners will invest $5 billion in India by 2020 as it looks to raise its presence in one of its fastest-growing emerging markets.
In September this year, PepsiCo Inc appointed Sanjeev Chadha as chief executive officer for Asia, West Asia and Africa. As in charge of PepsiCo’s operations in 90 of the 200 countries where the company is present, his aim would be scaling up the region’s share in PepsiCo’s total revenues. At present the region accounts for only about 10 per cent of the company’s total revenues, despite being home to two-thirds of the world’s population.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)