Failure To Deal With Bottlers Cause Of Coke Chief Transfer

The unceremonious exit of Richard Nicholas, ann-ounced this week, from the helm of affairs at Coca-Cola India is seen as the result of his inability to reconcile Coke's differences with its bottlers, say sources.

Richard Nicholas, whose tenure was to end in August, will be replaced by Donald W Short from April. His premature tenure as Coke India chief is, however, not without precedent. The tenure of the first chief executive officer of Coke India, Jaidev Raja, had met with a similar end.

But the timing of Nicholas's replacement---April'97--- the peak season for Coke in India, has come as a surprise to many. Nicholas had failed to convince the domestic bottlers to agree to Coke's plan of buying up their bottling units.

Coke had planned to set up two holding bottling companies with an investment of $700 million. The 26 odd bottlers who control nearly 54 bottling units in the country, were expected to pick up a stake in the holding companies. The idea was that in return for the stakes in the bottling plant Coke would acquire the bottling units.

The bottlers disagreed with the plan and have since steadfastly opposed the Coke move. More recently, the bottlers had yet another stand-off with Coke over the question of raising the supply price of concentrates.

Sources said Nicholas's failure to win over the bottlers has eventually proved to be his nemesis.

Richard P Nicholas has been designated senior vice president, retail and channel marketing, Coca-Cola Japan, effective April 1997.

A Coke press statement said "under the strong leadership of Nicholas, Coca-Cola India continued to differentiate its brands and expand its soft drink industry leadership by pioneering never before seen firsts in the soft drink industry".