Chief Executive Officer's message

2010 was another year of volatile economic conditions in Europe and across the world. Despite continuing pressures in a number of our markets, I am pleased to report that Coca-Cola Hellenic delivered a solid performance for the year, growing volume and share in many of our key markets across the Group, while continuing to build a strong platform for future growth.

The results we achieved are a reflection of the enduring core strengths of our business, including our strong and diverse portfolio of leading brands, the passion of our people for operational excellence, and the attractive growth prospects for the beverage industry across our markets.

Building on these strengths, our long-term strategic priorities remain unchanged. We continue to focus on enhancing our market leadership, driving operational efficiency, and generating strong cash flows to fund strategic investments in future growth.

At the same time, we stay nimble, adapting proactively to a changing world and viewing challenges as opportunities. In 2010, it became clear that as a result of continuing economic pressures on both our customers and our consumers, the beverage market was undergoing fundamental and rapid changes. We are resolved to change with it.

Our customers are on the front line of these changes and are more vital than ever to our future success. Consequently, we re-evaluated our performance in the area of customer service and focused on the accelerated changes we were seeing in the market. The result was a new Group-wide strategic initiative to further embed a customer-centric mindset throughout our entire organisation, across all functions, ensuring that our customers are at the heart of everything we do. In markets across the Group, we are partnering with retailers in new and innovative ways that will enable us to mutually gain competitive advantage in the marketplace, now and in the future.

At the same time, we continue to improve operating efficiencies, backed by our on-going investment in rolling out SAP Wave 2 across our markets. SAP Wave 2 is allowing us to introduce more efficient systems and process which, in turn, enhance customer service.

Our continual drive to improve operational efficiency also enables us to maintain a sound balance sheet and strong cash flow, giving us the resources to make strategic investments aimed at driving future growth.

Our business strategy is based on creating long term sustainable growth. Sustainability is part of our success, and in this Report we highlight how a number of our sustainability programmes play an integral role in each element of our strategy. In our separate annual Social Responsibility Report, you can find more detail on our wide range of programmes to manage our impact on the environment and support the communities where we operate.

Through all of these actions we continually strengthen our ability to capture the significant growth potential of our markets. While we expect economic recovery to be gradual, and its timing to vary from country to country, I am confident in our ability to drive future growth based on the core strengths of our business and our focused strategy. Another vital element of long term growth is succession. After eight deeply rewarding years as CEO of Coca-Cola Hellenic, I decided to retire in the third quarter of 2011 and be succeeded by our current Chief Operating Officer, Dimitris Lois. We have accomplished a great deal in the last eight years, and I am confident that we have a strong leadership team in place and the right strategy for delivering sustainable growth. I am certain that Dimitris, as a proven leader with a deep knowledge of the business, a passion for operational excellence and focus on people development, will lead this company to further success.

It is the skills, passion and focus of all of our associates that enable us to drive results and continue to strengthen our organisation in the face of challenging conditions. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone in the organization for their efforts and commitment to our continued success. I would also like to thank our Board of Directors for the confidence they have placed in me over the last eight years, and for their support as we continue to pursue our strategy for creating long-term growth for our business.

Doros Constantinou
Chief Executive Officer

Back to top