The revamp of Coca Cola India's operations is set for an official seal of approval from its headquarters at Atlanta. An internal memo to this effect will be sent out to all employees in India and other stakeholders over the next 24 hours. With this, Mr John Eustace will take over as CEO of Coca Cola India's company owned bottling operations (COBO), under its 51% subsidiary Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages. Mr Eustace, who comes from Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, one of the world's largest bottlers of Coke products, will report to Mr Steve Buffington, regional director of Bottling investments for South East Asia and Pacific. He in turn will report to Mr Irial Finan, president, worldwide bottling investments.

Mr Finan, along with Asia-Pacific chief Mr Patrick Siewert were recently in India to take stock of the company's bottling investments in the country. Of the 50-odd bottling plants in the country, 24 are company owned and the remaining are franchisee operated. The loss-making COBO operations account for nearly 80% of sales. Till now, Sanjiv Gupta, president, Coca Cola India, was overseeing the COBO operations, apart from looking after the concentrate division, marketing and innovations.

The two cola majors in India have been battling a drop in sales of carbonated soft drinks following a price revision over the last eight months. They are still in the process of recouping sales to pre-2003 level following the pesticide issue. Erratic weather conditions in 2005 have added to woes of cola companies. A recent Rajasthan High Court judgement has asked both the companies, Coca Cola and Pepsi, to print pesticide residue content on CSD bottles. This is expected to hit sales in the home segment. Coca Cola India is engaged in a long-drawn battle over ground water usage at its Plachimada plant.