Coca-Cola meets Germany: Hundreds of jobs in five cities away!
Coca-Cola meets Germany: Hundreds of jobs in five cities away!
The worldwide-known beverage company Coca-Cola makes a far-reaching decision: by 2025, the company is planning to close five locations in Germany. This measure affects several works in cities such as Cologne, Neumünster, Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, Bielefeld and Memmingen, which eliminates a total of 505 jobs. In a further step, positions in Fürstenfeldbruck, Halle, Achim, Herten and the headquarters in Berlin are also to be dismantled. At the same time, 207 jobs are to be relocated to other locations and 78 new jobs are to be created.
The union food-consumption-restaurant (NGG) is outraged by this step and questions the economic motives. "Coca-Cola earns a lot of money worldwide, but 500 jobs are destroyed in Germany by the new location closings," says Freddy Adjan, deputy chairman of the NGG. These developments raise questions that go beyond the mere corporate strategy and draw a picture of the greed for profit at the expense of employees.
criticism of entrepreneurial decisions
Coca-Cola justifies the closures with a changed beverage logistics and a decline in direct customer contacts. The company plans to concentrate its capacities on more efficient locations in order to optimize the operating processes and to remain competitive. According to Coca-Cola, this step is necessary to make the company future-proof.
The union, on the other hand, sees this decision an unclear responsibility of the company towards the employees. Adjan criticizes that the company is increasingly working to external service providers outsourcet. This not only leads to a loss of jobs, but also to an increase in transport routes, which contradicts the sustainability claims of a globally operating company.
In addition, the NGG Coca-Cola calls for taking responsibility for the employees concerned and looking for solutions together in order to avoid operational terminations. The company signals that discussions with employee representatives should start shortly, with the aim of creating alternative positions and finding mutual solutions.
The city of Cologne has also expressed its concern about the closure plans. "For our industrial location, the departure of the global corporation and the Coca-Cola brand is an immense loss," says Andree Haack, deputy for urban development. The work in Ossendorf plans to cease its production in March 2025 and to close it by the end of September 2025.
success figures from the past
Interestingly, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), who are responsible for filling and distributing the drinks in Germany, only recently a record heel. Last year, 4.1 billion liters of drinks were sold, which puts the company in a solid financial position. Managing Director John Galvin emphasizes how important the continuous improvement of the offer in various sales channels, including the food trade and discounter, is.CCEP, the largest beverage company in Germany with around 6,500 employees, shrank significantly over the years: 2015 Coca-Cola still operated 52 locations with 9,500 employees. The current closures can be seen as part of a profound restructuring process that aims at the preservation of competitiveness in the contested beverage market.
The upcoming changes throw shadows on the strategic decisions of Coca-Cola in Germany and leave space for speculation about the long-term effects on the workforce and the company image. A conscious handling of the newly created challenges will shape the next time, and the union will still have to collect its voice against the lean prospects of the employees. More information on this is in a current report on www.merkur.de to be found.
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