Coca-Cola’s planned location closures in Germany are met with rejection. The NGG union complains that the decision is neither sustainable nor ecologically sensible.
The Food, Pleasure and Restaurants union (NGG) criticizes Coca-Cola’s plans to close five locations nationwide in 2025. “Coca-Cola earns an enormous amount of money worldwide, yet 500 jobs will be lost in Germany as a result of the renewed site closures,” said NGG deputy chairman Freddy Adjan, according to a statement. “The impression is that it’s not about economic necessity, but about pure greed for profit at the expense of the employees.”
The beverage manufacturer announced on Tuesday that it wanted to close five production and logistics locations in Germany. The plants in Cologne, Neumünster, Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, Bielefeld and Memmingen are affected. Jobs are also to be cut at the Fürstenfeldbruck, Halle, Achim, Herten locations and in the headquarters in Berlin. A total of 505 jobs will be lost over the next year, 207 will be relocated to other locations and 78 new jobs will be created. In the future, the logistics volume will be distributed to other companies in order to make even better use of their capacity, it was said.
NGG: Dismantling leads to “thousands of kilometers of additional transport”
The decision is incomprehensible for the union. Adjan criticized Coca-Cola for outsourcing work to external service providers. With each closure, the company moves away from its promise of being a global brand that is produced and delivered locally. The dismantling of sites is “associated with thousands of kilometers of additional transport” on the roads. This is neither sustainable nor ecologically sensible.
The union called on Coca-Cola to take responsibility for its employees and work together towards a sustainable future. The talks between companies and employee representatives should start soon, as Coca-Cola explained. The aim is to avoid redundancies for operational reasons – through alternative positions at other locations and amicable solutions.
In Germany, the company Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) is responsible for bottling, selling and distributing the US group’s drinks. A few months ago, CCEP announced that it would have achieved record sales of 4.1 billion liters of beverages in 2023. “We can look back on a very good year in Germany, in which we significantly expanded the range of our popular drinks, especially in grocery stores, discounters and gas stations,” said Managing Director John Galvin.
According to its own information, CCEP is the largest beverage company in the Federal Republic and currently employs around 6,500 people at 27 locations, 14 of which are production plants. According to a spokeswoman, Coca-Cola still had 52 locations in this country in 2015, including 20 for production. Around 9,500 people were employed.
Source: Stern
