Beverage company Coca-Cola says it’s laying off 2,200 workers, or 17% of its global workforce, as part of a larger restructuring aimed at paring down its business units and brands.
The Atlanta-based company said around half of the layoffs will occur in the U.S., where Coke employs around 10,400 people. Coke employed 86,200 people worldwide at the end of 2019. It said the severance programs will cost between $350 million to $550 million.
The coronavirus pandemic has hammered Coke’s business, as sales at places like stadiums and movie theatres dried up due to lockdowns. Revenue fell 9% to $8.7 billion between July and September. The downturn forced the company to accelerate a restructuring that was already underway.
“We’ve been challenging legacy ways of doing business, and the pandemic helped us realize we could be bolder in our efforts,” Coke CEO James Quincey said during an earnings call in October.
Coke is reducing its brands by half to 200. It shed multiple slow-selling brands this year, including Tab, Zico coconut water, Diet Coke Fiesty Cherry and Odwalla juices. Coca-Cola’s first-ever “diet” soft drink, Tab, was introduced in 1963 and in the following years became a cultural touchstone. But sales started to slide after Diet Coke was introduced in 1982.
The coronavirus pandemic has hammered Coke’s business, as sales at places like stadiums and movie theatres dried up due to lockdowns. Revenue fell 9% to $8.7 billion between July and September. The downturn forced the company to accelerate a restructuring that was already underway.
“We’ve been challenging legacy ways of doing business, and the pandemic helped us realize we could be bolder in our efforts,” Coke CEO James Quincey said during an earnings call in October.