Coca-Cola overhauls operating structure

ATLANTA — Coca-Cola has streamlined its operating structure and the senior leaders for those businesses, the company said.

Effective Jan. 1, 2013, Coca-Cola will organize around three major operating businesses: Coca-Cola International — which will consist of the company's Europe, Pacific and Eurasia and Africa operations; Coca-Cola Americas — which will consist of the company's North America and Latin America operations; and the Bottling Investments Group, which oversees the Coca-Cola-owned bottling operations outside of North America.

As part of the structure change, Ahmet Bozer, currently president of the Eurasia and Africa group, will be appointed president of Coca-Cola International; Steve Cahillane, currently president and CEO of Coca-Cola Refreshments, will be appointed president of Coca-Cola Americas; and Irial Finan will continue as president of BIG. All three executives will continue to report to Coca-Cola chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent.

"This is the right structure for the next phase of our journey toward achieving our 2020 vision," Kent said. "Over the last couple of years, we have systematically been adapting our business model to better address the changing demands of the global marketplace. We have a solid foundation and momentum in our business. Now is the time to take the next step in our evolution. By consolidating leadership of our global operations under two large, but similar sized geographic regions and BIG, we will streamline reporting lines, intensify our focus on key markets and create a structure that leverages synergies and gives us flexibility to strategically adjust our business within those geographies in the future."