News briefs: Coca-Cola and Cobra Beer
executive may look to spend on his arrival, while production of one
of the UK's leading beer brands could be returning home.
More acquisitions expected from Coca-Cola The soon to be instated new chief executive officer of Coca-Cola is expected to kick off his tenure of the role with a number of acquisitions, according to news reports. Group chief operating officer Muhtar Kent, who will take up the new position from 1 July, says that bottled water and tea brands were increasingly important to the company and would influence future buys, the Reuters news agency has said. "You will see us grow organically as well as through targeted acquisitions," he was quoted as saying by the agency. Although Kent failed to specify any particular targets or markets the company would look to enter, the report suggested that the company would make smaller purchases on a country-to-country basis. Cobra may quit Poland plan for UK production In a reverse of recent processor behavior, production of the UK-based Cobra Beer brand could be returning to the country from Poland, according to news reports. The Indo-Asian News Service says that India-born owner Karan Bilimoria is to reverse his 2005 decision to outsource production of the brand to Eastern Europe apparently due to the strength of the Polish Zloty against pound sterling. The company estimates that it may save about £7m by 2010 by brewing one million hectolitres of the beer in the UK, according to the report. A number of leading food and beer manufacturers have in recent years moved their production out of Western European counties to their Eastern neighbours, citing local currency benefits, though such an action by Cobra could begin a shift in this pattern.
