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Coca-Cola to restructure workforce, sets voluntary job cuts

Coke’s restructuring plan comes as the company streamlines its drink portfolio to focus on larger and more popular brands.
Image: Coca-Cola
A forklift moves pallets of Diet Coke to be shipped out at a Coco-Cola bottling plant on Feb. 10, 2017 in Salt Lake City, Utah.George Frey / Getty Images file

Coca-Cola announced on Friday a workforce restructuring plan that will include voluntary job cuts.

Shares of the beverage giant, which has a market value of $210 billion, rose 1 percent in premarket trading. The stock has fallen 12 percent this year.

Coke said it will offer voluntary layoff packages to employees who qualify, starting with about 4,000 workers in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico who were hired on or before Sept. 1, 2017. The voluntary buyouts are expected to limit the number of involuntary job cuts that will follow.

The company is forecasting that its overall global severance program will cost the company $350 million to $550 million. Coke had roughly 86,200 employees worldwide as of Dec. 31, of which more than 10,000 were in the U.S.

On the operations side, nine new divisions will replace 17 business units and will focus on scaling new products faster and eliminating the duplication of resources. Coke’s global ventures and bottling investments divisions will be unchanged.

Coke’s restructuring plan comes as the company streamlines its drink portfolio to focus on larger and more popular brands. The coronavirus pandemic led its second-quarter earnings to fall 33 percent, but CEO James Quincey, who has led the company since 2017, has said it is trying to emerge from the crisis stronger than before.

The company plans to build new operating units focused on the regional and local level that will work closely with five global marketing leadership teams, divided up by category. The beverage categories include its namesake soda brand; sparkling flavors; hydration, sports, coffee and tea; nutrition, juice, milk and plant; and emerging categories.