GERMANY – Coca-Cola European Partners Deutschland GmbH (CCEP DE), the German subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company has unveiled plans to further bundle its logistics network and close several locations in the country.
The company intends to close and relocate the logistics activities in Hamburg, Ziesendorf, Münster, Kenn and Ramstein to other sites while the remaining tasks are to be transferred to external partners.
According to the company, the move is expected to affect 313 jobs, excluding field staff from sales and technical service at the respective locations.
The Coca-Cola bottler said that decision follows the changing needs of retail and catering customers.
According to the company there is increasing proportion of customers purchasing the goods produced directly from the 16 production sites across Germany.
At some of the company’s logistics locations, this leads to significantly lower capacity utilization and as a result, CCEP DE said that it can no longer operate these locations economically.
In addition, the company intends to reorganize Cold Drink Operations (CDO), the service for the refrigerators and vending machines. With the planned closure of the Hamburg location, repairs at the Hamm, Mainz and Urbach locations are to be concentrated.
The company is also planning to bundle and simplify logistics, customer service (customer care), vending and sales & marketing in the areas.
“We are aware that the planned changes are very painful for the colleagues concerned, ”says Felicitas von Kyaw, Managing Director of Human Resources.
“However, they are necessary to maintain our competitiveness in a competitive and dynamic market and to make our business future-proof.”
The bottler noted that the basis for the implementation of the changes is the applicable structural collective agreement between Coca-Cola and the employee representatives.
While a total of 313 jobs expected to be affected by the planned changes, CCEP DE said that the aim is to avoid redundancies and will, wherever possible, implement friendly solutions and alternative positions at other locations for affected employees.
