Coca-Cola Hellenic has inaugurated advanced energy-efficient power generating capacity at its plant in Ukraine that will reduce CO2 emissions by more than 40% and will increase energy efficiency by more than 32% versus traditional power generation. The Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant, which is located at the Coca-Cola Hellenic bottling facility in Kyiv region, was introduced in partnership with ContourGlobal, an international provider of efficient energy solutions. ContourGlobal has invested approximately Eur18 million in the project.

With electrical capacity of 6MW, the CHP plant supplies highly efficient clean electricity, heat, chilled water and CO2 for the soft drink production process. It is the only ‘quad generation’ plant in Ukraine.

Natural gas is the primary source of fuel for the twin Jenbacher engines which generate electricity. As they turn, they create heat which is captured to produce hot water for production use. This then passes through absorption chillers to provide chilled water.

The use of combined electricity, heat and cooling generation guarantees high efficiency in environmental, technical and financial terms.

George Nizharadze, senior vice president of ContourGlobal Solutions, comments: “This is the eighth project of its kind which we have built, commissioned and are going to operate in partnership with Coca-Cola Hellenic. This represents our commitment and capability in the development and operation of innovative cogeneration for industrial partners interested in long term, efficient, reliable and environmentally friendly sources of power generation,”

Working in partnership, Coca-Cola Hellenic and ContourGlobal have pledged to build a total of 20 CHP facilities in different countries by 2015. This marks the biggest CHP programme in the beverages industry and is expected to reduce global carbon emissions by 250,000 tonnes each year on completion.

Coca-Cola Hellenic is proposing a capital return to its shareholders of €0.34 per share. The proposal comprises a decrease in the par value of the company’s shares by approximately €125 million or €0.34 per share which will be paid to shareholders. The proposed transaction will be financed from the cash position of the company and is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.

As a separate item, Coca-Cola Hellenic is also proposing for a further decrease in the par value of its shares by approximately €55 million or €0.15 per share, in order to extinguish accumulated losses in an equal amount. Coca-Cola Hellenic’s board of directors have endorsed the plan for both transactions. The board believes that the proposed recapitalisation is appropriate, as it reflects the company’s strong and sustained cash flow generation. At the same time it will enable Coca-Cola Hellenic to maintain an efficient balance sheet.

Both proposals will be presented to the company’s shareholders at Coca-Cola Hellenic’s annual general meeting to be held on 25 June 2012.

Reflecting the economic uncertainty in Greece, Coca-Cola Hellenic plans to make certain changes to its corporate structure, subject to regulatory approval and approval by shareholders at the annual general meeting on 25 June 2012. Under the proposals Coca-Cola Hellenic’s Greek operating assets and liabilities will be transferred to a wholly-owned subsidiary of Coca-Cola Hellenic in accordance with the provisions of Greek law.

The effective date for the transformation of the balance sheet will be 31 March 2012. The transaction does not require a valuation and will be undertaken based on book values, which will be verified by the certified auditing firm PwC. The completion of the transaction is expected to take place in the third quarter of 2012.

The proposed changes in the corporate structure which brings the operations in Greece in line with the majority of group operations in other countries is intended to reduce complexity and will not have any impact on Coca-Cola Hellenic’s customers, employees or shareholders. It will ensure a clear distinction between Coca-Cola Hellenic, which manages operations in 28 countries, and its operations in Greece, which produces, distributes and sells Coca-Cola Hellenic’s products in Greece.

Coca-Cola Hellenic is to close two of its five production plants in Greece in a bid to cut costs and adjust to falling sales. The company’s sales volumes in Greece declined by 12% in 2011, impacted by the ongoing recession and austerity measures in the country.

Coca-Cola Hellenic is shutting its bottling plants in Thessaloniki and Patras and switching production to its other sites in Greece. However, distribution centres will be retained in Thessaloniki and Patras.

CCH, which has the Coca-Cola franchise for 27 countries in Europe and also in Nigeria, reported a 27% drop in net profit to Eur330 million for 2011, with sales volume down 1% to 2 billion unit cases.

Coca-Cola Hellenic has reported a 1% growth in net sales revenue to Eur8.85 billion for 2011 but volumes fell by 1%. Despite overall volume and net sales revenue remaining similar to the previous year, the continuing adverse impact of commodity costs and persisting economic challenges across most of the group’s territories, combined with unfavourable country mix and foreign currency impact resulted in a 21% decline in comparable EBIT to Eur541 million and net profit plunged 27% to Eur330 million.

A volume increase of 2% in developing markets was more than offset by a 3% decline in established markets and a 1% decline in emerging markets. Coca-Cola Hellenic’s sparkling beverages and energy drinks volume increased by 2% and 29% respectively, in 2011. Volume in the water and juice categories declined by 7% and 8%, respectively. Premium sparkling brands grew ahead of total volume, with Coca-Cola growing 5%, Coca-Cola Zero growing 7%, and Fanta and Sprite growing 1%, each.

Coca-Cola Hellenic continued to focus on improving operating efficiencies and productivity in its business through further restructuring initiatives in 2011, incurring pre-tax restructuring costs of Eur72 million which are expected to yield annualised benefits of Eur50 million from 2012 onwards. The restructuring initiatives of 2010 and 2011 resulted in total benefits of Eur44 million in 2011.

”Despite extremely challenging economic conditions in most of our markets, net sales revenue per case grew by 4% on a currency neutral basis in the full year. This result was achieved whilst growing or maintaining our volume share in sparkling beverages in twenty five out of twenty eight markets in 2011,” comments Dimitris Lois, chief executive of Coca-Cola Hellenic.

He continues: “We expect the economic environment and consumer sentiment to remain weak in 2012. We also anticipate another year of significant input cost pressures. In this environment, we will continue to optimise our operations to reduce our ongoing costs. We remain committed to our revenue growth strategy, and we expect to further improve currency neutral net sales revenue per case while we continue building sustainable leadership in the marketplace.”

The soft drinks group has identified additional restructuring opportunities to further improve efficiencies and reduce costs. It expects to incur costs of approximately Eur50 million in restructuring initiatives for 2012, which are expected to yield Eur35 million annualised benefits from 2013 onwards. Initiatives already taken in 2011 and initiatives to be made in 2012 are expected to yield approximately Eur40 million in total benefits in 2012.

Athens-based Coca-Cola Hellenic, the world’s second-largest bottler of products of The Coca-Cola Company, has announced that its chief financial officer, Robert Murray, will resign from the group to return to his native USA during 2012. Michalis Imellos, currently general manager of Coca-Cola Hellenic inRomania & Moldova will succeed Robert Murray in the position as chief financial officer. To ensure a seamless transition the appointment will take effect in the second quarter of 2012.

Robert Murray comments: “The opportunity to be part of Coca-Cola Hellenic’s leadership team has been a privilege and a learning experience at a personal and a professional level. The time has now come for me and my wife to relocate back to the USA to be close to our family.”

Michalis Imellos joined Coca-Cola Hellenic in July 2008 as Region Finance Director for several of Coca-Cola Hellenic’s markets including Nigeria, Romania, Moldova, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria. In July of 2011, he was appointed general manager of Romania & Moldova.

Heineken and Coca-Cola Hellenic have acquired 41.2% of the minority shares in their joint venture company, Pivara Skopje, in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) for €79.1 million (excluding acquisition costs). Coca-Cola Hellenic and Heineken now collectively own 96.5% of the shares in Pivara Skopje.

Pivara Skopje was established in 1924. In 1998 Coca-Cola Hellenic and Heineken together acquired the majority interest in the company. Today Pivara Skopje is the largest beer and soft drinks company in FYROM manufacturing, distributing and selling the brands of The Coca-Cola Company and Heineken.

Heineken and Coca-Cola Hellenic are acquiring 41.2% of the shares in Pivara Skopje, their joint venture beverage company in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). The shares are currently owned by various minority shareholders. The total consideration for the transaction is Eur79.1 million, to be equally divided between Heineken and Coca-Cola Hellenic.

The transaction is subject to approval by the FYROM competition authorities and is expected to be completed by early 2012. Following the closing of the transaction, Heineken and Coca-Cola Hellenic will together own 96.5% of the shares in Pivara Skopje. The remaining 3.5% of the shares is largely owned by former and current employees of the company.

Pivara Skopje is the leading beverage company in the country – producing, marketing and distributing various beer and soft drink brands, most notably Skopsko and Coca-Cola. Heineken and Coca-Cola Hellenic acquired their initial 55.3% stake in the company in 1998.

The Coca-Cola Company and its bottling partner, Coca-Cola Hellenic, have announced a new Russian investment programme of $3 billion over the next five years, commencing 2012. The announcement was made at the official opening of Coca-Cola Hellenic’s newest plant in Europe, located in the Rostovregion of Russia. Indeed,Russia is the largest marketplace in Coca-Cola Hellenic’s business, which incorporates operations in 28 countries, serving a population of more than 560 million people.

The Coca-Cola Company and Coca-Cola Hellenic have already cumulatively invested over $3 billion in Russia. Investment in the Coca-Cola Hellenic Rostov facility, which has a production capacity of 450 million litres of beverages per year, and is located within a 26.5 hectare area, has to date amounted to over $120 million.

Coca-Cola Hellenic, one of the world’s largest bottlers of products of The Coca-Cola Company, has been included for the fourth consecutive year in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI), the premier global sustainability benchmark. The DJSI are based on an analysis of the economic, environmental and social performance of the world’s 2,500 largest companies measured by free-floating market capitalisation. Only the top 10% achieve inclusion after assessment of a range of general and industry-specific issues including climate change mitigation, supply chain standards and labour practices.

Coca-Cola Hellenic is one of only three beverage companies worldwide to merit a place on the DJSI World index, and one of just two to make it into the DJSI Europe index. It is also the only Greek company included in either index. In the assessment process, Coca-Cola Hellenic received top scores for the beverage industry in nine assessment categories including perfect marks in two – Environmental Policy/Management Systems and Packaging.

Dimitris Lois, chief executive of Coca-Cola Hellenic, says: “Gaining inclusion in the Indexes is an achievement on its own. Maintaining our position for four years requires continual improvement, which is the focus of our long-running Towards Sustainability programme. We know we will need to demonstrate further progress to be included next year and we are determined to do exactly that.” Coca-Cola Hellenic’s overall score improved year-on-year from 72% to 77%.

The adverse impact of commodity costs and continued economic challenges in certain key markets, have resulted in a 23% decline in comparable EBIT to Eur249m at Coca-Cola Hellenic for the first half ended July 1st 2011, despite a 3% increase in net sales to Eur3.37b, and a similar rise in volume. Comparable net profit dropped 28% to Eur146m.

Volume growth was led by a 6% increase in developing and a 3% increase in emerging markets. Net sales revenue growth included a 3% increase in emerging, an 8% increase in developing and a 1% increase in established markets.

During the first half of 2011, Coca-Cola Hellenic grew its share in sparkling beverages across most of its key markets includingRussia, Nigeria, Austria, Ireland, Ukraine, Romania, Italy, the Czech Republic and Poland. The group is continuing to expect benefits from restructuring initiatives of approximately Eur38 million in 2011.

“Despite improved operating efficiencies, restructuring savings, and revenue growth management initiatives, high commodity prices combined with challenging economic conditions hindered our profitability,” comments Dimitris Lois, chief executive of Coca-Cola Hellenic. “Commodities are still expected to increase by low double-digits for the year. We remain committed to recover a substantial portion of this increase.”

The amount of PET plastic bottles collected for recycling across Europe last year rose by more than 6% to reach almost 1.5 million tonnes, according to a report commissioned by two industry bodies. European PET container body Petcore and plastics recycling association EuPR said European post-sorting PET collection increased to 1.45 million tonnes in 2010, an increase of 6.5% compared to 2009.

Coca-Cola Hellenic has pioneered the establishment of packaging recovery organisations that collect, recycle and recover packaging waste in 19 countries in which it operates. In 2010, an estimated 79,000 tonnes of PET bottles which contained Coca-Cola Hellenic products were recovered.

The ultimate goal for Coca-Cola Hellenic, which last year invested almost Eur42m in recovering PET bottles, is to close the recycling loop by converting used packages into new. In Austria, the company co-owns a bottle-to-bottle recycling plant, which recycles up to 570 million bottles each year.

Sabine Strnad, resources recovery manager at Coca-Cola Hellenic, says: “We are committed to continuing our close cooperation with governments and the industry in order to promote collection mechanisms, technological innovations and sorting techniques. Our ultimate aim is to create truly sustainable closed loop packaging solutions.”

Dimitris Lois has succeeded Doros Constantinou, who is retiring, as chief executive of Coca-Cola Hellenic. Mr Lois joined Coca-Cola Hellenic in March 2007, when he was appointed region director with responsibility for several of Coca-Cola Hellenic’s key markets including Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Moldova, Nigeria and Romania.

In July of 2009 Mr Lois was appointed chief operating officer for all of Coca-Cola Hellenic’s countries with all of the group’s region directors reporting directly to him. As chief operating offices he has overseen a number of significant achievements including growing market shares, driving working capital improvements, focusing operations on significant cost optimisations and successfully deploying the group’s SAP WAVE 2 platform.

Athens-based Coca-Cola Hellenic, one of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers globally, has denied recent media speculation regarding its potential relocation. Coca-Cola Hellenic has been bottling and selling its products in the Greek market since 1969. The group maintains its headquarters in Greece from where a multi-national senior management team directs its operations in 28 countries. Its shares have their primary listing on the Athens Stock Exchange with secondary listings on the New York Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange.

The group points out that recent announcement concerning the establishment of a shared services centre in Bulgaria to consolidate back-office functions in the areas of Human Resources and Finance (eg personnel administration) relates not only to Greece but to the majority of its 28 countries. It is aimed at achieving process standardization and operational efficiencies in these areas in line with similar initiatives undertaken by many other multinational groups.

“Greece is an important market for the group. Despite the current difficult operating environment, our key aim in Greece is to constantly improve our competitiveness and efficiency in order to continue to offer high quality products to our local consumers,” says Doros Constantinou, chief executive of Coca-Cola Hellenic.

Coca-Cola Hellenic, one of Europe’s leading bottlers of non-alcoholic beverages, has further strengthened the rigorous reporting and verification of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities across operations in 28 countries. Coca-Cola Hellenic is the first European food and beverage company to reach an ‘A+’ rating, according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) for its CSR report.

Its just published 2010 CSR report, ‘Towards Sustainability’, has been reviewed by an external Stakeholder Review Panel which provided input and a critical assessment of the report’s strengths and improvement opportunities. In addition, the company stated that the auditor denkstatt carried out an independent third-party validation of the contents in accordance with the international standards AA1000 (2008) and GRI (Global Reporting Initiative).

Among initiatives reported by Coca-Cola Hellenic are -increased efforts to combat climate change. Beyond the construction of three Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants during the year, which will reduce CO2 emissions by up to 66% at each facility, the company has now launched a programme to install solar panels on rooftops.

Energy-saving activities also involve improving efficiency of power use in bottling operations, transportation, and cold drink equipment which is progressively being replaced with models which are free of HFCs and are up to 63% more energy-efficient than previous coolers, substantially cutting CO2 emissions.

Another primary environmental focus is protection of water resources. More than 97% of wastewater was treated at bottling plants in 2010, and systems put in place enabled the re-use and recycling of 1.2 billion litres of water in production processes.

Coca-Cola Hellenic is one of the world’s largest bottlers of products of The Coca-Cola Company with sales of more than two billion unit cases, and 560 million customers buying its products annually.

Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company has appointed Dimitris Lois to succeed Doros Constantinou, who will be retiring as the group’s chief executive later this year. To ensure a seamless transition the appointment will take effect in the third quarter of 2011.

“We have accomplished a great deal over the past eight years and I am convinced that Coca-Cola Hellenic has a strong leadership team and the right strategy for future sustainable growth,” says Doros Constantinou “As I move to the next phase of my life, I am pleased that we have a solid succession plan in place.”

Dimitris Lois joined Coca-Cola Hellenic in March 2007. In June 2007, he was appointed region director with responsibility for several of Coca-Cola Hellenic’s key markets including Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Moldova, Nigeria and Romania. In July of 2009, he was appointed chief operating officer for all of Coca-Cola Hellenic’s countries with all of the group’s region directors reporting directly to him.

Greece-based soft drinks group Coca-Cola Hellenic increased volume sales by 1% in 2010 to 2.1b cases and net revenue by 4% to Eur6.79b. On a comparable basis (excluding restructuring costs), operating profit (EBIT) rose 5% to Eur682m and net profit advanced 8% to Eur450m. Free cash flow of Eur549m was stable compared to 2009.

During 2010, Coca-Cola Hellenic continued to focus on implementing cost reduction and productivity improvement initiatives as part of an ongoing effort to increase competitiveness and efficiency. The group incurred pre-tax restructuring costs of Eur37m which are expected to yield annualised benefits of Eur35-40m from 2011 onwards. Furthermore, Coca-Cola Hellenic has identified additional restructuring opportunities at a cost of approximately Eur30-35m in 2011, with expected annualised benefits of Eur20-25m from 2012 onwards.

Coca-Cola Hellenic is one of the world’s largest bottlers of Coca-Cola products. It has a broad geographic reach with operations in 28 countries serving a population of approximately 560 million people.

Doros Constantinou, chief executive of Coca-Cola Hellenic.

“We are pleased to report that Coca-Cola Hellenic delivered a solid performance in 2010, despite the persistent macro economic challenges across our geography. We continued to win in the marketplace, improve operating efficiency and maintain our strong cash flow generation. At the same time Coca-Cola Hellenic’s geographic diversity enabled us to deliver a strong set of results,” comments Doros Constantinou, chief executive of Coca-Cola Hellenic.

He adds: “Looking to the current year, we are encouraged that some of our key countries are exhibiting signs of economic improvement. However, we remain cautious as other key countries are continuing to endure economic challenges, and we are facing industry wide pressure on commodity prices. As we manage the business for the long-term we will be increasing our net capital expenditure to Eur1.5b for 2011–2013. At the same time, we remain focused on improving the efficiency of our business, and strengthening the ways in which we serve our customers.”

Coca-Cola Hellenic has been recognised as a leader in energy efficiency, by becoming a finalist at the 12th annual Platts Energy Industry Awards, in New York. This year’s awards attracted over 200 entries from over 30 countries with Coca-Cola Hellenic the only Greek company represented.

Coca-Cola Hellenic was a finalist alongside extremely stiff competition in the Energy Efficiency Programme of the Year: Commercial End-User category, with entries from major companies such as Tesco, McDonalds, and United States Navy Task Force Energy, with Tesco crowned the eventual winner.

Coca-Cola Hellenic was nominated for its innovative Quad generation combined heat and power (CHP) programme. CHP plants generate power, heating and cooling, recovering the heat energy typically wasted by conventional power plants.

Coca-Cola Hellenic’s ambitious programme commits the company to build 20 CHP facilities by 2015. They are being constructed in partnership with ContourGlobal, a leading international company specialising in the development of efficient energy installations.

As part of its overall carbon reduction programme a number of solar power generation facilities are also being built. These are already operating Italy, with more planned in Greece and Bulgaria in 2011. The total cost of these projects is more than Eur200m and the programme, when complete, will reduce carbon emissions by 25% – over 1.4 million tonnes of CO2 – by 2015, which is ahead of EU targets.

Coca-Cola Hellenic has been recognised for its continuing commitment to embedding Corporate Social Responsibility into its operations across 28 countries by achieving listings on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and the DJSI Europe Index for the third consecutive year. The company is one of only four beverage producers worldwide to be included in the 2010 DJSI World Index, and one of two represented in the DJSI Europe listing. It is the only Greek-based company to be included.

The DJSI indices, updated annually, assess corporate sustainability leadership globally in 57 industry sectors as defined by the Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB). In 2010 more than 2,000 companies worldwide were subjected to a thorough analysis of corporate economic, environmental and social performance, assessing issues such as corporate governance, risk management, branding, climate change mitigation, supply chain standards and labour practices.

“We are building a company for the future. Sustainable development in every area of our operations is vital,” says Doros Constantinou, chief executive of Coca-Cola Hellenic. “However, we are only too aware that there is no room for complacency, and this being our third consecutive annual listing, generates excitement and a feeling of ‘being’ in our employees which I trust will further strengthen our focus.”

In the DJSI review of the beverage sector, Coca-Cola Hellenic received the top scores in Health & Nutrition, Codes of Conduct/Compliance/Corruption & Bribery, Water-related Risks, Corporate Citizenship and Talent Attraction/Retention.

Coca-Cola Hellenic is one of the world’s largest bottlers of products of The Coca-Cola Company with sales of more than 2 billion unit cases. It has broad geographic reach serving a population of approximately 560 million people.

Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company’s Irish business has officially opened a new energy efficient bottling plant, computerised warehouse, and community-focused visitors centre at Knockmore Hill, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The €130 million facility employs 600 people and has the capacity to produce a wide range of non-alcoholic beverages for delivery throughout the entire island of Ireland.

The facility operates seven filling lines – four for PET bottles, one for glass, one for cans, and one for post-mix. There is a PET moulding unit with six blow moulders capable of handling 750,000 bottles per day.

In addition, the complex features a fully automated warehouse which not only provides efficient storage and retrieval, but also gives better protection to containers and pallets, improves handling times and ultimately is designed to deliver a ‘perfect’ pallet to customers, and a high quality beverage into the hands of the end consumer.

A key component of the new bottling plant is a combined heat and power (CHP) system, which has been constructed in partnership with ContourGlobal, a leading international company specialising in the development of efficient energy installations.

The CHP plant at Knockmore Hill will cut CO2 emissions at the plant by up to 66% while supplying excess clean electricity to the local power grid. The plant is the fourth to be officially opened and another 11 are under development by ContourGlobal, as part of Coca-Cola Hellenic’s commitment to combating climate change

“Our aim is to cut CO2 emissions by an average of 20% across all 80 of our bottling plants,” says Doros Constantinou, chief executive of Coca-Cola Hellenic.

Coca-Cola Hellenic is one of the world’s largest bottlers of products of The Coca-Cola Company with sales of more than 2 billion unit cases. It has broad geographic reach with operations in 28 countries serving a population of approximately 560 million people.

CAPTION:

Pictured at the opening of facility at Knockmore Hill are (left to right): Northern Ireland Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster; First Minister Peter Robinson; Marcel Martin, general manager of Coca-Cola Hellenic for the island of Ireland; Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness; and chief executive of Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, Doras Constantinou.

Coca-Cola Hellenic, which is one of the largest bottlers of Coca-Cola products in the world and the biggest in Europe, has reported stable net profit of Eur201m for the six months ended 2nd July 2010, despite a tax charge of Eur21m related to the ‘Extraordinary Social Contribution Tax’ in Greece, imposed as part of the country’s attempts to get to grips with its debt crisis.

Volumes at 1,009m unit cases were 2% below the first half of 2009 although net sales revenue was up 1% to Eur3.30b. On a comparable basis, operating profit (EBIT) rose 3% to Eur320m.

Doros Constantinou, chief executive of Coca-Cola Hellenic.

Coca-Cola Hellenic’s operations span 28 countries, serving more than 560 million people. The company is headquartered in Athens and listed on the Athens, New York and London stock exchanges.

“The broad geographic spread of our business enabled us to deliver a robust operating performance in the first half of the year, with the effects of increasingly challenging conditions in specific key countries being offset by improving trading performances in other markets, particularly in Eastern Europe,” comments Doros Constantinou, chief executive of Coca-Cola Hellenic. “We continue to focus successfully on identifying further efficiency improvements and cost savings which are expected to support future profitability. Our group-wide focus on strong cash flow generation continues to yield results, while we are increasing our investment in marketing in countries where signs of recovery are more evident.”

Coca-Cola Hellenic operations in Ukraine and Serbia are members of business groups which have been named as being among the top three performers in the world under the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) local network programme.

The UNGC is a strategic policy initiative for businesses which are committed to aligning their operations and strategies in respect of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Currently, there are 80 countries around the globe with local Global Compact networks.

The awards were presented to the Ukraine and Serbia networks ‘in recognition of the outstanding efforts made to share knowledge and experiences in advancing the Global Compact locally’. The network in Japan was the third to be commended.

Doros Constantinou, chief executive of Coca-Cola Hellenic.

“It is hoped that this award will help to encourage many more businesses in Ukraine, Serbia and elsewhere to unite in introducing and establishing behaviour in line with the principles of corporate social responsibility,” says Doros Constantinou, chief executive of Coca-Cola Hellenic.

Coca-Cola Beverages Ukraine and Coca-Cola HBC Serbia are two of the 13 operating units of Coca-Cola Hellenic Group to have founded, participate in or support UN Global Compact Local Networks since their establishment in 2005. Since then, the Group has been named a Notable Reporter by UNGC each year for its annual report on its progress toward the sustainable development of its operations, and of the communities it serves.

In the Ukraine, the Coca-Cola Hellenic business works with 150 other companies and public organisations in the UNGC Local Network. In addition to pursuing overall UNGC goals, in 2008 the grouping signed the ‘Go Green!’ declaration which aims to protect the environment by encouraging behavioural changes in society. It includes research and educational activities, and support for legislation development.

In Serbia, with funding from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the National Bank, as network members, the grouping tackles key issues including social inclusion, anti-corruption, CSR in banking, finance and the environment, as well as an overall CSR strategy.

Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling is purchasing all shares in Coca-Cola HBC Serbia that it does not currently own for Eur16.9m. Coca-Cola Hellenic indirectly controls 89.1% of the shares of Coca-Cola HBC Serbia.

With sales of more than 2 billion unit cases Coca-Cola Hellenic is one of the world’s largest bottlers of Coca-Cola products. It has broad geographic reach with operations in 28 countries serving a population of approximately 560 million people.