The beverage giant Coca-Cola is planning to close five locations in Germany – including in Berlin and Cologne. Hundreds of jobs are affected.
The beverage manufacturer Coca-Cola plans to close five production and logistics locations in Germany over the next year. The plants in Cologne, Neumünster, Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, Bielefeld and Memmingen are affected, according to a statement from Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP). The company is responsible for bottling, selling and distributing the US group’s drinks in Germany.
505 jobs will be lost, 207 will be relocated to other locations and 78 new jobs will be created. They wanted to “position themselves even more cost-efficiently in the persistently competitive market environment, address the changes in beverage logistics and further strengthen utilization in the German production and logistics network,” it said. The company operates a production and logistics site in Cologne, while the other four cities are purely logistics sites.
“We are aware that the planned changes are very painful for the employees affected. This makes it all the more important for us to implement all planned changes in a socially responsible and transparent manner,” said the Managing Director of Customer Service & Supply Chain at CCEP, Tilmann Rothhammer.
According to its own information, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners is the largest beverage company in Germany and employs around 6,500 people at 27 locations, 14 of which are production plants.