Istanbul – Turkish Daily News
The world’s largest beverage company Coca Cola has decided to manage a significant proportion of its global operations from Turkey by moving one of its centers to the country, daily Vatan reported Friday. The top executives of Coca Cola Turkey were informed Thursday that Coca Cola is planning to move its Eastern Europe, Russia, Middle Asia, Caucasus, Middle East and all-Africa center to Turkey, the newspaper said. The global player is expected to manage almost two fifths of its global operations from Turkey.
Approximately three weeks ago, Alpaslan Korkmaz, head of the Investment Support and Promotion Agency, which was established to attract foreign investment to Turkey, had announced that one of the world’s top 50 companies would move its center, which has a turnover of $17 billion, to Turkey. However, the name of the company was kept secret. Immidiately following after Korkmaz’s statement, Vatan had announced that the aforementioned giant was Coca Cola. With the new development, approximately 30 top-level executives working at Coca Cola Company’s Europe operations in Paris and London will relocate to Istanbul. “I cannot reveal the name; however, I guess we will be able to announce the company’s name on June 13,” Korkmaz had previously said. This development is crucial for the country, “because it will enable Turkish executives to gain experience in the sector and qualify them to work in various units of the company,” he said. Muhtar Kent, a Turkish businessman, has been president and chief executive officer of Coca Cola since December 2007.