UK – British coffeehouse owned by multinational beverage giant, Coca-Cola, has appointed Philippe Schaillee as the new CEO of the company effective April 10, 2023.
Costa Coffee, founded in London in 1971 by Sergio Costa as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops, was acquired by Whitbread in 1995 and sold in 2019 to The Coca-Cola Company in a deal worth £3.9bn.
Costa, present in 45 countries, is the second-largest coffeehouse chain in the world and the largest in the UK. The business has 2,800+ coffee shops in the UK & Ireland and 1,100+ globally and over 12,700 Costa Express vending facilities in the UK and more than 1,600+ globally.
Schaillee comes to Costa from Groupe SEB, where he has served as executive vice president in charge of Products and Innovation since April 2021.
His career began in the Sara Lee Group in Belgium in 1994, where he held various marketing roles. In 2000, he moved to the United States, where he was executive vice president of marketing for the coffee and tea businesses. He later became EVP of the beverages division.
Schaillee has also been the EVP of the Breakfast, Snacking & Beverages division, SVP, chief marketing officer, and executive committee member for all of the Sara Lee Group’s categories in the United States.
He has also worked with Jacob Douwe Egberts (JDE) Group as the president of the Professional Coffee Division and served as a member of their executive committee.
Most recently, he has been a member of the executive committee at France-based Groupe SEB, which is a global market leader in cookware, small domestic appliances, and professional coffee equipment, with brands that include WMF, Schaerer, All-Clad, Krups, Tefal, and Rowenta.
Coca-Cola HBC Croatia picks Bulgarian unit CEO to head Adria business
At the same time, The Croatian unit of soft drinks bottler and distributor Coca-Cola HBC named The CEO of Coca-Cola Company Bulgaria, Dora Strezova-Nikolova as the new CEO of the company’s Adria regional business unit as of the beginning of February,
She replaces Ruza Tomic Fontana, who will head Coca-Cola HBC’s operations in Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
In this position, she will be in charge of the company’s management in Croatia, Bosnia, and Slovenia, Coca-Cola HBC Croatia said.
The Coca-Cola Company nominates Amity Millhiser as new director
For the coming company’s election done during the Annual Meeting of Shareowners in April, the Board of Directors of The Coca-Cola Company has nominated business leader Amity Millhiser to stand for election to the board.
If elected by shareowners, she will begin her service as a Coca-Cola director effective July 1, following her retirement from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP on June 30.
Millhiser, 59, is a partner and Vice Chair at PwC, where she serves as a senior counsel for clients ranging from high-growth startups to market-leading multinationals.
She was formerly the Chief Clients Officer and a member of PwC’s U.S. Leadership Team, where she was responsible for overseeing key client relationships and driving growth through PwC’s 15-plus industries and 90-plus U.S. markets.
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