Beverage manufacturer Coca-Cola plans to close five production and logistics locations in Germany in the coming year. 505 jobs will be lost, 207 will be relocated to other locations and 78 new jobs will be created.
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) explained that they “want to position themselves even more cost-efficiently in the continued competitive market environment, address the changes in beverage logistics and further strengthen utilization in the German production and logistics network.” The factories in Cologne, Neumünster, Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, Bielefeld and Memmingen are affected.
In Cologne, where Coca-Cola operates a production and logistics site and currently employs around 600 people, production will stop on March 31, 2025. With four companies, the location density in the west is very high, it was said. With two production lines, Cologne is also the smallest company and there was a lack of expansion and growth opportunities. The closure is intended to increase the occupancy rate at the other locations and make production more efficient. In the other four cities affected by the closures, the drinks manufacturer only has logistics facilities.
“We are aware that the planned changes are very painful for the affected employees. “It is all the more important for us to implement all intended changes in a socially responsible and transparent manner,” said Tilmann Rothhammer, Managing Director Customer Service & Supply Chain at CCEP.
The move is also justified by a change in beverage logistics. Large trading partners are increasingly switching from direct delivery to delivery via the central warehouse, while smaller customers are increasingly ordering via beverage wholesalers. As a result, the number of direct customers and orders, as well as the outbound warehouse volume at the logistics locations, would decrease significantly.
According to its own information, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners is the largest beverage company in Germany and employs approximately 6,500 people at 27 locations, 14 of which are production plants.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
