What initiatives are CCA taking in the South Korean business?
We are focused on improving the fundamentals of the business so that as consumer spending recovers our brands will return to growth. We shall substantially improve the level of our sales execution in this market over the next two years, to increase availability and presence of all brands. This has necessitated the strengthening of the South Korean sales and marketing team through a number of senior management changes. The marketing spending on ‘Coke’ and ‘Fanta’ is being redeployed to higher growth and higher margin channels. Consumer marketing is being made more relevant to South Korean youth, to increase the number of consumers and their level of consumption of these key brands. The South Korean retail market is transitioning from a ‘corner store type’ structure into a modern retail environment. Accompanying this transition has been discounting by supermarkets, often at below cost, of some of our products. To counter this activity and address the low overall growth rates, the success
