Coca-Cola HBC Serbia confirmed its commitment to Serbia’s market
Coca-Cola HBC Serbia published its seventh Sustainability Report for 2019.For this company, the previous year was a year of great business decisions and excellent results in the field of community investment, employee engagement, environmental protection and market initiatives. In 2019 alone, Coca-Cola HBC Serbia invested over 36 million dinars in projects that encourage the development of the Coca-Cola community.
Having in mind the importance of environmental protection, which is one of the postulates of business, in 2019 the company continued to work on various initiatives that reduced the impact on the environment itself. Thus, the consumption of water per liter of produced beverage decreased by 53.8 percent, while the total energy consumption per liter of produced beverage by 2019 was reduced by 52 percent. At the same time, Coca-Cola HBC Serbia strives to reduce the impact of its packaging on the environment by increasing the percentage of recycled material in packaging and developing lighter packaging. Thanks to that commitment, only in 2019, savings of 295 tons of PET material were achieved. In this way, the company wants to achieve the goal that by 2025, 35 percent of PET packaging contains recycled material, as well as to collect 75 percent of the primary packaging of its products.
The business venture that marked 2019 was the acquisition of Bambi by Coca-Cola HBC AG, resulting in further expansion of the vast portfolio with some of the favourite confectionery brands. Bambi’s operations have a long history of success. Committed to consumers, innovativeness, diverse brand portfolio, Bambi has been a synonym for quality and success for more than 50 years now. The acquisition finalised last year marked new opportunities for development and expansion of Bambi and for creation of value added for the company, customers and shareholders of Coca-Cola HBC.
In addition, aiming to be the first customer choice on any occasion 24/7, Coca-Cola HBC continuously expands its product range, in line with preferences and needs of customers and partners. Furthermore, it has more than 37,000 customers in Serbia, who rank this company as best supplier in the Champions League for the ninth consecutive year.
The company has for years been recognised as the most desirable employer, offering a stimulating working environment, equal access and fair opportunities for professional development to employees, as confirmed by the employee retention index of 90 percent.
“The new reality and increasingly serious challenges have shown that business sustainability is more important than ever before. Every year, our work is dedicated to the fulfilment of our sustainability mission, as demonstrated by outstanding results we achieve. However, we have confirmed that we are able to respond to the major challenges, crisis and difficulties affecting the entire world, while bearing in mind what is most important – wellbeing of our employees, community and people in general. Generous assistance we provided to those at the front line of the response to coronavirus: healthcare professionals, army, police, volunteers the Red Cross, as well as the support we are currently providing to the HoReCa sector by promoting positive spirit and new reality with the ‘Open Like Never Before’ campaign, have verified once again that we have been a stable partner and pillar of the society in good and also in challenging times as well, for more than a half a century,” notes Svetoslav Atanasov, Coca-Cola HBC Serbia General Manager.
As all others, the seventh Sustainability Report was produced in accordance with the international recognised GRI standards, meeting strict requirements of the UN Global Compact Progress Report. The Dow Jones World and Europe Sustainability Indices have recognised the Coca-Cola HBC Group as one of the top three companies in the beverage sector both in Europe and globally