COCA-COLA INDIA celebrates International Women’s Day with women retailers

Ludhiana, March 8, 2013: Coca-Cola India, one of the country’s leading beverage companies celebrated International Women’s Day by organising a retail training programme for nearly 1,000 women across 13 cities in the country.

The company runs a training programme for retailers called Parivartan, under which it has already trained more than 1,35,000 retailers in the country. Parivartan includes modules on Shop Management, Stock Management, Customer Management and Financial Management.

Training women in retailing skills is a step to economically empower women under the Coca-Cola Company’s global 5BY20 initiative. Under the 5BY20 initiative, the Company is working to help economically empower 5 million women across our global value chain by 2020.

The participants were informed about simple but effective techniques for enhanced sales efficiency.

Speaking about the initiative, Atul Singh, President and CEO, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia,said, “There is a strong correlation between women's empowerment and national GDP growth, business growth, environmental sustainability and improved human health. Women already are the most dynamic and fastest-growing economic force in the world today. Coca-Cola India believes that investing in women makes social as well as business sense. We are happy to be able to play a role towards social inclusiveness and we are working to scale up our initiatives in a larger geography.”

Kailash Kumar Goenka,Chairman and Managing Director of Ludhiana Beverages Pvt. Ltd., (LBPL), Punjab added, “The International Women’s Day is an occasion to honor the role women play in our lives and society. We took the opportunity to customize our retailer training program – Parivartan – for women retailers and are encouraged to see overwhelming participation. We hope that such initiatives can help create a canvas for social change in the country.”

A woman retailer who has received training under the programme said, “We own small kirana shops, and for us each day’s business is important. Today’s training program has been very useful and provided us an opportunity to learn new things. We are thankful to Coca-Cola India for thinking about us and training us for free.  We feel very happy and we will tell other women about this program as well.”

Parivartan was launched in December 2007 with the first training session held in Agra. The training offered under Parivartan is imparted through classrooms as well as buses which go right to the heart of the Indian hinterland.

The key elements of the program are: 

o   Shop Management, Stock Management, Customer Management and Financial Management

o   Multimedia training approach using videos, text and trainers.

o   Time frame, based on when retailers would be available: 11-1pm followed by lunch and 2-4 pm followed by snacks.

o   Training is offered in 6 languages and all trainers are trained and certified by Coca-Cola

In February 2012, the programme reached the milestone of 1,00,000 retailers trained under this unique initiative, making it one of the largest and most impactful of its kind in India.

In September 2010, The Coca-Cola Company announced a 10-year global initiative to empower 5 million women through the Coca-Cola system. This initiative aims to help women in Coca-Cola’s global business system break down the barriers that can prevent them from growing their businesses. By providing access to business skills, financial services and assets and support networks of peers and mentors, the 5by20 initiative globally is helping women achieve their entrepreneurial dreams, while also creating thriving, sustainable communities.

In India, the 5by20 programme is focused on driving women empowerment through entrepreneurship for inclusive growth. The 4 key initiatives under this are:

·       eKOcool solar coolers: Coca-Cola India is providing solar coolers for free in electricity deficient areas of rural India to enable income generation opportunities for low income women retailers

·       Pragati, a business skills program led by Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (the Company owned bottling company) is focused on training and engaging women retailers in rural India in classrooms.

·       Parivartan: the Business Skills Capability Program led by the Coca-Cola University is now being extended to women retailers and is focused on building capability of women retailers in mobile classroom buses.

 ·       Project Unnati: 50,000 farmers are being trained and enrolled for adoption of a special technique called UHDP (Ultra High Density Plantation). This technique ensures higher yield of mangoes, that too after only 3-4 years of plantation. About 10%-15%, of the farmers being trained under this Project, will be women farmers. The farmers are also trained on modern farming techniques.