Coca-Cola to close down bottling plant in Sroda Slaska

Coca-Cola Beverages (CCB), the domestic producer of Coca-Cola soft drinks, will close a bottling plant in Sroda Slaska. The assembly lines will be moved to two other plants; in Lodz and Radzymin. About 4% of CCB's employees in Poland or 102 employees will be laid off. Some of them will move into distribution. "We want to be more effective in using production means and the whole infrastructure. Sroda will remain the capital of one of five distribution centers and assets remaining after closing the factory will be used as warehouses," said CCB general manager Ronald Pugsley. The plant closure will end the clarification phase with firms that were producing Coca-Cola products in Poland but were taken over by CCB. Pugsley said sales of Coca-Cola, which account for 55% of total sales, would grow by 8% over last year. (Puls Biznesu, page 1, 3)