He leaves Danone, a business worth 476 million lei (EUR108.7 million) in 2010, three years and a few months into his mandate to take over at the helm of a business almost four times larger. By deadline, Danone had not made any comment on Batoux’s departure.
In 2010, the turnover of Coca-Cola HBC was around EUR414 million and the company’s volumes fell 4% in 2011. If the decline were similar in the company’s turnover, this would bring Coca-Cola HBC’s sales in Romania to around EUR400 million last year.
The information according to which Stephane Batoux will be general manager for Romania and Moldova of Coca-Cola HBC has been confirmed by Coca-Cola representatives.
Prior to coming to Romania, Batoux, 45, was general manager of Danone’s subsidiary in Ukraine after being purchasing director within the Italian subsidiary of the Reckitt Benkiser group.
An announcement by Coca-Cola about the new general manager has been awaited on the market since December 2011, when the group announced that Michalis Imellos, at the time interim general manager of bottler Coca-Cola Hellenic in Romania and Moldova, would replace Robert Murray, who stepped down as CFO of Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company in Greece. Imellos’s appointment was set to become effective in the second quarter of 2012.
Imellos had taken over as interim general manager of Coca-Cola HBC Romania in July last year.
The latest changes at the helm of Coca-Cola come after Calin Dragan, who in 2004 was put in charge of Coca-Cola HBC Romania, left to work for Coca-Cola Japan. (EUR1=RON 4.3754)
(English version by Daniela Stoican)