 "Coca-Cola India hires Shehnaz Gill as franchise head")
Beverages major Coca-Cola India has announced changes in its organizational structure by appointing Shehnaz Gill as franchise head ahead of implementation of GST that will convert the country into a 'single' national market.
Gill, who is an industry veteran, will take over the newly created role of Senior Vice-President Operations for India.
As per the company statement, Gill will serve as the Franchise Head for all the 14 bottlers operating in India and will report to Venkatesh Kini, President, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia.
Coca-Cola India operates with 14 bottlers of parent The Coca-Cola Company in India, one of which is a company owned bottling entity Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd.
"Under the new operating structure effective January 2017, the franchise management function of Coca-Cola India has been organized for geographical synergies instead of bottling territories," said Venkatesh Kini.
He further said that the company has built a solid foundation for our business over the last two decades, we are ready to embrace India as one national market with common commercial metrics, marketing calendars and market execution standards.
"This will drive productivity, reduce duplication, leverage technology, enable digitization and capitalise on the company's distribution scale," added Kini.
The new structure also enables the company's business to be a growth engine for Coca-Cola Company by capitalizing on emerging opportunities like e-commerce, modern trade, new beverages and digitization, while continuing to build on its wide reach in traditional trade, the statement said.
Gill re-joins Coca-Cola India system after serving as Vice President and General Manager, Upstate New York and Pennsylvania for Coca-Cola Refreshments.
The new structure is only applicable to Coca-Cola India and the operating structure Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd. (HCCB) remains intact.
