Coca-Cola India & South West Asia Announces changes to its Leadership team

Changes are in keeping with developing business needs and investment in talent development

by Priya jadhav

New Delhi,July 2018:   Coca-Cola India & South West Asia, a leading beverage company that offers a range of beverage choices to consumers, announced changes to its leadership team. The new structure is designed to enable the India & South West Asia business to be a growth engine for The Coca-Cola Company by capitalizing on emerging opportunities while continuing to build on talent development.

Announcing the change, T. Krishnakumar, President, Coca-Cola India & South West Asia said, "We believe there are significant opportunities that lie ahead of us to grow our portfolio and meaningfully penetrate the market. It is our constant endeavor to strengthen the leadership team for a strong sustainable future growth and address developing business needs. It also reinforces our commitment towards investing in talent development.”

To lead this change, Sarvita Sethi has taken over as Vice-President– M&A and New Ventures from her earlier role of Vice President Finance India & South West Asia. In this new role, Sarvita will provide leadership toBusiness Incubation through Alternate Revenue Streams in New Ventures. She will also continue to lead theM&A priorities for our business in India & South West Asia.  Sarvita has garnered multi-functional experience throughout her career, including Strategy, Marketing, HR and Procurement apart from Finance, and she has also worked across several industries including Retail, Marketing and Food Service sectors.  In addition to this, she has international experience, having worked across both North Western Europe and Central and Southern Europe, before her appointment in India & South West Asia.  A qualified Chartered Accountant, Sarvita holds a BSc. (Joint Honors) in Economics & Accountancy from City University, UK.   This new appointment enables her to run a full-fledged business, thereby providing her the opportunity to further build upon her multi-functional experiences by gaining general management and operations exposure.

Harsh Bhutani has been appointed to the position of Vice President – Finance (CFO), Coca-Cola India & South West Asia, effective 1st August 2019. Harsh currently heads Finance and Business Services verticals for Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd. as Executive Director & Chief Financial Officer for over three years. He has been an integral part of the Finance Function at Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd. for more than two decades and had joined HCCB in 1999 from ABB Limited. He is a seasoned professional who has had the opportunity to work in the Zonal and Corporate Finance teams of HCCB.  As a System Resource, he brings in multifaceted experience from almost all the domains of finance encompassing business strategy, planning & execution, treasury, tax & risk management to name a few. Harsh is a Commerce Graduate from Delhi University and a qualified Chartered Accountant.

Coca-Cola in India and South West Asia is one of the region’s leading beverage companies. Headquartered in Gurgaon, the Business Unit manages the businesses in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan. It offers a range of healthy, safe, high quality, refreshing beverage options to consumers. Since its re-entry in 1993, the company has been refreshing consumers with its beverage products - Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero, Diet Coke, Thums Up, Thums Up Charged, Fanta, Fanta Green Mango, Limca, Sprite, Sprite Zero, Maaza, VIO flavoured milk ‘Almond Delight’ and ‘Kesar Delight’, Minute Maid range of juices, FUZE tea, Georgia and Georgia gold range of hot and cold tea and coffee options, Aquarius, Schweppes, SmartWater, Kinley and Bonaqua packaged drinking water and Kinley Club Soda. The Company along with its owned bottling operation and other bottling partners, through a strong network of over 2.6 million retail outlets, touches the lives of millions of consumers, at a rate of more than 500 servings per second. Its brands are some of the most preferred and most sold beverages in the country – Thums Up and Sprite – being the top two selling sparkling beverages.

The Coca-Cola India system provides direct employment to 25,000 people and indirect employment to more than 150,000 people. The Coca-Cola system in India is contributing in its own small way to building sustainable communities through community initiatives like Support My School, VEER, Parivartan and Unnati and by reducing its own environmental footprint. For further information on the company's India operations and its products, please visit: www.coca-colaindia.com and www.hindustancoca-cola.com.