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Stakeholder Engagement

INSWA (India and South West Asia including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives)

Overview

The Coca‑Cola System in the India and South West Asia region is dedicated to delighting consumers and creating loved brands, done sustainably, for a better shared future. Our vision is to craft the brands and choice of drinks that people love, to refresh them in body and spirit. And done in ways that create a more sustainable business and better shared future making a difference in people’s lives, communities and our planet.

Throughout our disclosures on this page and through our other reporting mechanisms, including our integrated annual 2020 Business & ESG Report, we seek to demonstrate our ambition and leadership in the food and beverage industry – using our leverage on the global challenges that require broad collective action, such as fostering excellence in water stewardship, eliminating plastic waste, upholding human rights and supporting sustainable agriculture.

We continue to evolve as a total beverage company and respond to consumers’ desires for more choices across categories. The insights and feedback of our key stakeholder voices are critical to our work and are integrated into our strategy across all business and ESG goals.

Bottling Partners

We are a global business that operates on a local scale. We can create global reach with local focus because of the strength of the Coca‑Cola system, which is comprised of our company and our bottling partners worldwide.

The primary way that our products reach the marketplace starts with The Coca‑Cola Company, which manufactures and sells concentrates, beverage bases and syrups to bottling operations. The Coca‑Cola Company also owns the brands and is responsible for consumer brand marketing initiatives. Our bottling partners manufacture, package, merchandise and distribute final branded beverages to our customers and vending partners, who then sell our products to consumers.

All bottling partners work closely with customers – such as grocery stores, restaurants, street vendors, kiranas, convenience stores, movie theatres and amusement parks, among others – to execute localized strategies developed in partnership with our company. Further information can be found on our Coca‑Cola System page.

  • India: In Coca‑Cola India, we work with 14 bottling partners, with a vast manufacturing footprint, warehouses, suppliers and distributors.
  • Bangladesh: The Coca‑Cola System in Bangladesh comprises of a wholly owned subsidiary of The Coca‑Cola Export Corporation (“TCCEC”) namely Coca‑Cola Bangladesh Limited (“CCBL”), which provides marketing and other support services, a company-owned bottling entity, namely, International Beverages Private Limited (“IBPL”) and one Independent Authorised Bottling partner of The Coca- Cola Company (TCCC), namely; Abdul Monem Limited (“AML”). Both IBPL and AML are authorized to prepare, package, sell and distribute beverages under certain specified trademarks of TCCC; supported by an extensive distribution system comprising of customers, distributors and retailers.
  • Sri-Lanka: The Coca‑Cola System in Sri Lanka comprises of a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Coca‑Cola Export Corporation (“TCCEC”) named Coca‑Cola Sri Lanka Private Limited (CCSPL) which provides marketing and other support services, and a company-owned bottling entity named Coca‑Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Limited (CCBSL)-which is authorized to prepare, package, sell and distribute beverages under certain specified trademarks of The Coca‑Cola Company (TCCC); supported by an extensive distribution system comprising of customers, distributors and retailers.

Communities

We support local communities through The Coca‑Cola Foundation. Since its inception in 1984, The Foundation has awarded more than $1 billion in grants to support sustainable community initiatives globally.

  • India: The Coca‑Cola India Foundation (CCIF) in India is named “Anandana”. It was registered in 2008 and since then has invested USD 10.7M in various projects related to improving watershed health and economic empowerment for the marginalized sector of India’s population. The impact of this work had an outreach of reaching over 100K+ community members across 750+ villages creating a replenish potential of 14+ billion liters of water. Click here for details of the work - https://www.anandana.org. Our COVID relief community response program and Stop the Spread Campaign efforts benefitted local communities, migrants and marginalized communities and sensitized millions of people about the importance of being vaccinated to protect themselves and their families from COVID.
  • Bangladesh: The COVID-19 pandemic called attention to the importance of empathetic and compassionate leadership. Coca‑Cola Bangladesh is working with district administrations, our partners, people, communities and consumers to protect the nation’s health and wellbeing with support and solidarity. With support from The Coca‑Cola Foundation (TCCF) Atlanta in 2020 and in 2021, we pledged over USD1.9M towards COVID-19 relief measures to support vulnerable and marginalized communities across Bangladesh. Through our partners, we have supported vaccination roll-out support and awareness communication along with protective gear distribution. Our relief programs aimed at positively impacting over 5,000,000 lives in Bangladesh.
  • Nepal: The Coca‑Cola System in Nepal worked hard to ensure a reliable supply of our beloved beverages while safeguarding the health of employees, partners and consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Coca‑Cola Foundation pledged USD 665,000 towards COVID-19 relief measures to support those who were most impacted across Nepal in 2021 additional support for installation of Oxygen Plant in a public Hospital in 2021. During the second wave of the coronavirus, The Coca‑Cola Foundation committed USD 200,000 towards facilitating vaccination, providing safety kit and creating awareness programs to help stop the spread of Covid-19.
  • Sri Lanka: In Sri Lanka, we contributed USD 740,000 towards combating COVID-19 across impacted areas of the island in 2020 and 2021, and implemented our comprehensive emergency response program in collaboration with our long-term partner Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS). In 2020, With funding from The Coca‑Cola Foundation, we distributed essential packs containing dry food, sanitary items and first aid to 6100+ vulnerable families in areas severely affected by the pandemic. We also supported the Government of Sri Lanka in enhancing its testing facilities for COVID-19 by procuring and handing over more than 16,800 PCR Test Kits and 17,000 Viral. In 2021, With funding from The Coca‑Cola Foundation, through the Stop The Spread porgramme, we completed the distribution of Personal Protective Equipment to 250,000+ essential frontline workers, strengthening 90+ medical and law enforcement institutions across 8 districts in the country, together with its implementing partner Sri Lanka Red Cross Society.

Customers

Our customers range from large stores like hypermarkets, supermarkets and e-commerce to smaller, out-of-home services and others. We work closely with our customers to improve our service and help them achieve their sustainability goals (for example, truckload optimization to reduce carbon emissions). And we monitor customer satisfaction on a quarterly basis, by country. In all of the work we undertake with our customers, we are guided by our policies including our Code of Business Conduct, Privacy Policy and Prohibition on Cartel Activity. Recently, Coca Cola in India collaborated with Reliance Jio for the first live streaming in the FMCG retail ecosystem with the launch of Coca‑Cola Zero Sugar.

Government and political engagement

We seek to work collaboratively and transparently with the central, and regional government in India. As it relates to political engagement, we have a few top advocacy areas where we often focus our discussions with policymakers. These include environmental policy, health and wellness and taxes.

  • India: From an advocacy standpoint, we are the founding members of the India Plastics Pact which is led by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) India Plastics Pact
  • Bangladesh: Coca‑Cola Bangladesh is a member at Greater Dhaka Watershed Restoration Workstream; Circular Economy and Riverine Plastic Pollution Management Technical Committee; Agricultural Water work stream; Water Governance and Sustainability work stream and EPR Technical Committee.
  • Nepal: Bottlers Nepal Limited is a member of Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) and Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce & Industries (FNCCI).

Non-government organizations

  • India: Coca‑Cola India has partnered with grass root community based organizations like Barefoot College, Social Action for Rural Advancement (SARA), Action for food Production (AFPRO), Parmarth, United Nations Development Programs (UNDP), International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), HARITIKA, S. M. Sehgal Foundation, N. M. Sadguru Foundation, Corbett Foundation, Jagriti Yatra Foundation, American India Foundation (AIF), Self-Employed Women Association (SEWA), Lupin Foundation, Saahas Foundation, Akshaya Patra Foundation, United Way-Mumbai, Date with Ocean Foundation and others.
  • Nepal: CCBSL is a part of National EPR Steering Committee & Consortium for PET packaging, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Sri Lanka Food Processors Association, American Chamber of Commerce, Beverage Association of Sri Lanka and Bio-diversity Sri Lanka

Peer companies

Partnerships with peer companies are part of our global DNA, and we are proud to partner with our customers in the INSWA operating unit. Some of our associates lead the committees, sub-committees, and working groups in various Industry Associations. This aligns with the larger interest of consumers, and, environment and sustainability. Presently the below positions are being chaired by our associates:

  • Co-Chair: FICCI Environment Committee
  • Co-Chair: FICCI Biodiversity Committee

Trade associations

As a leader in the global beverage business, we support trade groups and other organizations that represent a broad spectrum of views on industry and policy issues.

  • In India we are members of the following trade associations and policy groups
  1. Confederation of India Industry (CII) CII
  2. Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)
    FICCI : Industry's Voice for Policy Change
  3. Indian Beverages Association Indian Beverage Association (in-beverage.org)
  4. Pet Packaging Association for a Clean Environment (PACE) Packaging Consultants In Delhi | Pet Packaging Association In Delhi | Pet Packaging Clean Environment | Clean Environment Association Delhi | India (paceindia.org.in)
  5. Action Alliance for Recycling Beverage Cartons (AARC) AARC
  6. Public Affairs Forum of India (PAFI)
  • Bangladesh: Coca‑Cola Bangladesh is active member of FICCI (Foreign Investor’s Chamber of Commerce & Industries), AMCHAM (American Chamber of Commerce & Industries), MCCI (Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce & Industries), BBMA (Bangladesh Beverage Manufacturers Association) and US-BD Working group (US Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce).
  • Sri Lanka: CCBSL is a part of National EPR Steering Committee & Consortium for PET packaging, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Sri Lanka Food Processors Association, American Chamber of Commerce, Beverage Association of Sri Lanka and Bio-diversity Sri Lanka

Collaborations with key stakeholders, both internal and external, are essential to achieving our purpose. Throughout this page we have aimed to provide a holistic overview of our stakeholder engagement, focusing on our approach, and related data and policies.