Quality and commitment: Keys to the success of Coca-Cola
Quality and commitment: Keys to the success of Coca-Cola
From only one plant and 25 employees 64 years ago, Coca-Cola today has 11 plants across the archipelago and more than 6,500 people on the payroll. Now it is planning further major investments to take advantage of Indonesia's burgeoning economy.
Coca-Cola is pushing ahead with construction of its new Cibitung bottling plant to keep pace with booming sales in Jakarta. The US$72 million development will be one of the world's largest and most technologically advanced beverage facilities when it is completed late this year.
Construction of the plant follows a publicly reported 30 percent growth in national sales last year and an increase in trading profit of 48 percent on 1994. The company has invested $300 million in 11 plants across the archipelago since it set up operations in Jakarta in 1932. In that year, Coca-Cola had only 25 employees and three trucks in Indonesia. Now, it employs more than 6,500 people and its distribution network, the largest in Indonesia aside from the postal service, supplies 400,000 retailers. In the next three years, it plans to invest a further $300 million.
The Cibitung plant will replace Coca-Cola's Cempaka Putih facility, home to the company's Jakarta business for 25 years. Located on a 21.8-hectare site, the new facility will have three and a half times the production capacity of the existing plant. With a roof area equivalent to about seven football fields, its five high-speed lines are capable of further expansion.
The success of Coca-Cola is reflected in a recent poll by leading business magazine SWA. In an independent annual survey last year, conducted in five major Indonesian cities, SWA rated Coca-Cola the number one soft drink for brand awareness and perceived quality.
"Consumers' preference for quality is reflected in our sales growth," said John Brady, PT Coca-Cola Indonesia's managing director. "Our product represents 26 percent of total soft drink sales, and 86 percent of carbonated soft drink sales. We outsell our nearest international competitors by 17 to one with more than four million servings of our products being consumed each day in Indonesia," Brady said. Aside from Coca-Cola, the company's products also include diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Hi-C tea and Bonaqa.
Also, last year, Coca-Cola was ranked the world's most valuable brand for the second year running by Financial World magazine. In addition, Fortune magazine rated it the world's number one long-term investment and the most admired company in the beverage industry.
PT Coca-Cola Indonesia owes much of its success to its two- pronged policy of transfer of technology and localization. "We have sent at least one-third of our employees to countries as far afield as the United States, Mexico, Hong Kong and Hungary, to give them an insight into the way we market our products around the world," Brady said.
"An important part of our commitment to employees is training and development. Certainly this includes classroom training but we also find practical experience and assignments in other markets to be extremely valuable," Brady added. "This year alone our System plans to spend $3.5 million on training and human resources development."