Coca Cola expresses plans of restructuring its global workforce

Coca Cola (NYSE: KO) said on Friday that it plans on restructuring its workforce that is expected to see voluntary layoffs. Coke published its quarterly financial results in July that posted a 33% year over year decline in its earnings attributed to the Coronavirus disruptions.

Shares of the company closed more than 2% up on Friday. At a per-share price of £37.32, Coca Cola is currently about 30% up versus a year to date low of £28.13 per share in March due to COVID-19 restrictions. At the start of the year, Coke was reported trading at £41.20 per share. In comparison, the American multinational beverage corporation had posted an annual gain of more than 15% in the stock market last year.

Coke to layoff 4,000 workers in Puerto Rico, Canada, and the U.S.

According to Coke, the first round of restructuring is likely to affect 4,000 of its workers that were hired before 1^st September 2017 (inclusive), in Puerto Rico, Canada, and the United States. The employees that qualify, Coke added, will receive a voluntary layoff package.

The beverage company expects the planned restructuring to cost £262 million to £412 million in total. At the start of the year 2020, Coke’s global workforce comprised of 86,200 employees. Its U.S. workforce had over 10,000 employees at the time.

The Atlanta-based firm plans on replacing its current 17 business units with 9 new divisions. The company expressed its commitment to minimising duplication of resources. Following the restructuring, it highlighted, new products will be scaled more efficiently than before.

Coke wishes to establish a dedicated unit for global scale and efficiency

The American multinational wishes to establish a dedicated unit that will focus entirely on its global scale and efficiency at large. The segment will handle consumer analytics, data management, and e-commerce. It will also collaborate with Coke’s bottlers. The company’s current chief for information and integrated services, Barry Simpson, will head this unit.

Coke’s beverage categories after restructuring will include sparkling flavours; nutrition, juice, milk and plant; hydration, sports, coffee and tea; its namesake soda brand, and emerging categories. Leaders of each global category will report CMO Manolo Arroyo.

In related news, Coca Cola adopted DLT and Ethereum earlier in August in a bid to improve its supply chain. At the time of writing, the American multinational beverage corporation has a market cap of £160 billion and has a price to earnings ratio of 23.44.