?Coca-Cola plans to restructure its senior management people

Coca-Cola, one of the world's largest beverage companies, has embarked on a restructuring exercise that is likely to affect a large chunk of its senior management, company sources said.

A senior Coca-Cola India executive said, "It started off with Coke CEO-designate James Quincey easing out Atul Singh, currently chairman of the Asia-Pacific group, and bringing in John Murphy in his place, in May last year. Singh will retire from the company in March."

He said sales of fizzy drinks in the country are slowing down due to high taxes and consumers opting for healthy beverages. Around 70 percent of Coca-Cola’s sales comes from fizzy drinks. "The company’s performance in India is under scrutiny," the executive said.

Right after Singh’s transfer, Sarvitha Sethi was brought in from Europe to replace Sanjeev Kumar as Coca-Cola India’s CFO. Last month, Manu Narang Wadhwa was roped in from Amex as the company’s HR head. She replaced Sameer Wadhawan, who was given the responsibility of heading a newly created function to help Coke’s bottlers in India get digital-ready.

Subsequently, Sumanta Datta, VP of Coke India’s bottling operations, was made VP of South West Asia (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives), a region which does significantly lower volumes than this country. Similarly, Coca-Cola India franchisee bottling operations VP, Bhupendra Suri, is relocating to Nigeria.

Apart from them, other leaders at the company who are likely to get new roles are Deepak Jolly, VP, venturing and emerging brands, and Debabrata Mukherjee, VP, marketing and commercial. These are all core team members of Venkatesh Kini, president, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia. When asked about the current restructuring exercise, a Coca-Cola India spokesperson said, “This is speculative and has no connection with the truth.” Murphy, president, Asia-Pacific group, Coca-Cola, who took over from Singh, is flying down to India this month. Murphy reports directly to Quincey, president and COO of Coca-Cola, who will succeed Muhtar Kent as Coke’s global CEO this year.

Apart from replacing Singh, Quincey shook up the entire Coke hierarchy in May, easing out veterans and ushering in new hands. In a Q&A on Coke’s website, Quincey said the restructuring will streamline Coke’s operations and bring “freshness” to markets. “A fresh pair of eyes is a good thing; stability is also a good thing. It’s important to strike a balance between those two,” he said.