Coca-Cola has formally marked the 55th anniversary of doing business in Croatia and its 20th anniversary of nonfinancial reporting. Coca-Cola has been manufacturing and distributed its products in Croatia for more than five and a half decades – the first bottle of Coca-Cola was made on 17 September 1968 at the bottling plant in Zagreb. In addition to marking its anniversary of doing business, the company also celebrated its 20th anniversary of transparent reporting of its social and environmental impacts and presented the results of its seventh Sustainable Business Report at its bottling plant and corporate headquarters.
More than 250 guests at this formal celebration included Davor Filipović, PhD, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, who also acted as a delegate of Croatia’s Prime Minister. He underlined in his speech: “I congratulate Coca-Cola and all its employees for years of successful business and wish them further success in the years to come. Their sustainability story is what really needs to be emphasized. 20 years ago, Coca-Cola issued its first social business report. I understand this was not only the first such report in this part of Europe but also the first one across Coca-Cola’s entire system, which clearly shows it was a leadership move. All those involved in management say that leaders innovate, raise standards and keep pushing forward.”
Coca-Cola HBC Croatia is part of Coca-Cola HBC Group, one of the world’s leading bottling companies and partner to The Coca-Cola Company. On the occasion of this anniversary, Zoran Bogdanović, Coca-Cole HBC’s CEO, said: “While doing business in Croatia, we went through times of prosperity together, but also through challenging times, always remaining committed to our customers and our role in the Croatian business community. We have worked together as a team and used our best efforts to create a company that will redefine our commitment to maintaining the highest standards by using global best practices. Ever since we started in business, Croatia has had a major impact on the business operations of Coca-Cola HBC Group.”
While presenting the Sustainable Business Report, Dora Strezova-Nikolova, CEO of Coca-Cola HBC Adria, underlined the longstanding tradition of corporate transparency and added: “Coca-Cola HBC Croatia published its first Social Report back in 2003 as a pioneer of sustainable and socially responsible business in Croatia. We have built on this and continued to lead nonfinancial practices and evolve our 2-decades long sustainability story. We are surrounded by geopolitical instabilities and have witnessed noticeable impacts of climate change, which is why this legacy includes an unprecedented level of responsibility. Our duty is to incorporate purpose in each business process, decision and activity and continue to seek new ways of accomplishing our joint vision for a more sustainable future.”
The Sustainable Business Report, which covers our results for 2022, was prepared in compliance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards, in cooperation with the WISE Institute attached to IEDC Bled School of Management and the Ekvilib Institute as our external advisors, presents the following key results:
- Since 2010, we have reduced the amount of water used per liter of beverage by 13%.
- Compared to 2017, we have reduced our CO2 emissions per liter of beverage by 29%.
- All electricity is sourced from clean and renewable sources.
- We have recycled 99% of hazardous waste and 100% of hazardous waste has been handed over for proper management.
- As much as 100% of consumer packaging is recyclable.
- We locally sourced 84.3% of products and services.
- We were particularly focused on ensuring that all employees receive equal opportunities and treatment and, with 48% of the executive positions being occupied by women, the company is now close to reaching its 50% target by 2025.
- Since 2015, we have reduced the number of workplace accidents resulting in absences by 62%.
- All employees are included in the performance and talent management cycle, which allows us to identify their development needs – since 2019, the number of training hours per employee increased by 136%.
- The total value of Coca-Cola’s direct and indirect contributions in the form of wages, taxes and income was 289 million euros (HRK 2.195 million), which accounts for 0.5% of the total GDP.
For more information, please visit https://apps.jutarnji.hr/coca-cola-hbc-55-20/