MUMBAI, JAN 28: Following Coca Cola Co's plan to shed 6,000 jobs around the world, Coca Cola India has decided to shed some flab and around 100 jobs in the multinational company is on the block in its first tranche of restructuring."As a result of Coca Cola's bottler consolidation there was duplication of responsibilities and diminishing focus in some aspects of our business. hence streamlining and providing sharper focus to business activities has resulted in some of the positions becoming redundant," company official Rahul Dhawan told this newspaper.Of its worldwide army of 30,000, Coca Cola India employs around 6,000 people in India. ``Though the modalities are still being worked out, the number would be close to one hundred,'' he told this newspaper in a written reply. Company insiders, however, say that the multinational is looking at a figure of removing around 1,000 people from its rolls in the next few years. ``The company has already sent feelers down the ladder that some people will have togo. we are waiting for some official communication,'' said a Mumbai-based employee.Though Coke performance in India is nothing to write home about, in the last two years, it has taken an aggressive stand to increase its market share. The company also bought out its bottlers in order to infuse technology and increase capacity. Along with bottlers, the multinational had to hire their employees which has become redundant after the company spent a huge amount in technology.Thus, most of the cuts are focused on jobs that overlapped with Coke's bottlers, primarily in marketing, sales and customer support, say insiders.The company was also toying with the idea to sell a part of its equity in its four bottling company to small investors, it later backed out from the plan. The company is now setting out to create a decentralised company, with managers empowered to make decisions at the local level.
