Changes are in keeping with developing business needs and investment in talent development

New Delhi, 29th July, 2019: Coca-Cola India, a leading beverage company that offers a range of beverage choices to consumers, today announced changes to its leadership structure. The new structure is designed to enable the India & South West Asia business to be a growth engine for The Coca-Cola Company by capitalizing on emerging opportunities while continuing to build on talent development.

Announcing the change, T. Krishnakumar, President, Coca-Cola India & South West Asia said, "We believe there are significant opportunities that lie ahead of us to grow our portfolio and meaningfully penetrate the market. These changes will address developing business needs and pave the way to develop a stronger portfolio for the future. It also reinforces our commitment towards investing in talent development.”

To lead this change, Sundeep Bajoria, a veteran of the Coca-Cola system has taken over as Vice-President – South West Asia (SWA) Operations from his earlier role of Vice President Strategy and Insights. With the growing significance of expanding our regional footprint, Sundeep now spearheads the South West Asia region and will work towards making it an innovation and growth engine for the India & South West Asia business and the Coca-Cola system.

Sundeep brings a successful track record of over 20 years within and outside the Coca-Cola system in Strategy, Finance, revenue growth management, Capital projects, and People & capability development. He is a 14 year veteran of the Coca-Cola system having worked in multiple roles in different Group businesses and Bottling Investment Groups.

Chandrasekar Radhakrishnan has been appointed to the position of Vice President - Strategy & Insights, Coca-Cola India & South West Asia. Chandrasekar will take charge of the strategic initiatives for the company to accelerate the pace of innovation and assess opportunities to offer a much broader and deeper portfolio of beverages for the consumers.

With a career spanning over two decades, Chandrasekar comes with a combination of international and domestic experience. He joins Coca-Cola India from Nestlé, where he was responsible for leading a worldwide initiative to optimize marketing efficiencies. As the Head of Consumer Communication and eCommerce, Chandrasekar effectively embedded brand building capabilities in the organization, drove creative excellence in brand communication via strong internal and external partnerships, laid a strong foundation in building digital and eCommerce competencies and played a key role in establishing consumer engagement. He has contributed significantly to the cause-based campaigns of the company thereby making a positive impact on the society. He has also worked with Britannia, Marico and Airtel and has played a variety of roles across sales, marketing and business functions.

About Coca-Cola India 
Coca-Cola in India is one of the country’s leading beverage companies, offering a range of healthy, safe, high quality, refreshing beverage options to consumers. Since its re-entry in 1993, the company has been refreshing consumers with its beverage products - Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero, Diet Coke, Thums Up, Thums Up Charged, Fanta, Fanta Green Mango, Limca, Sprite, Sprite Zero, Maaza, VIO flavoured milk ‘Almond Delight’ and ‘Kesar Delight’, Minute Maid range of juices, FUZE tea, Georgia and Georgia gold range of hot and cold tea and coffee options, Aquarius, Schweppes, SmartWater, Kinley and Bonaqua packaged drinking water and Kinley Club Soda. The Company along with its owned bottling operation and other bottling partners, through a strong network of over 2.6 million retail outlets, touches the lives of millions of consumers, at a rate of more than 500 servings per second. Its brands are some of the most preferred and most sold beverages in the country – Thums Up and Sprite – being the top two selling sparkling beverages.

The Coca-Cola India system provides direct employment to 25,000 people and indirect employment to more than 150,000 people. The Coca-Cola system in India is contributing in its own small way to building sustainable communities through community initiatives like Support My School, VEER, Parivartan and Unnati and by reducing its own environmental footprint. For further information on the company's India operations and its products, please visit: www.coca-colaindia.com and www.hindustancoca-cola.com.

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