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."