Equatorial Coca-Cola Bottling Company
AT A GLANCE
2020/21
Welcome to Equatorial
Coca-Cola
After a far from ordinary year, we are pleased to share the third edition of Equatorial Coca-Cola Bottling Company: At A Glance. This year's edition covers the period from the second half of 2020 to the mid-2021, and shares some of the highlights and the major developments that took place at the company during this time.
Alfonso Líbano Daurella
Chairman of the Board
Alfonso Bosch
Chief Executive Officer
The most notable of these developments is the relocation of the group's Head Office to Casablanca, Morocco. This move marks a major milestone in Equatorial Coca-Cola's journey, growing from a small team of six in a Barcelona-based office to a key bottling partner of The Coca-Cola Company in North and West Africa. This strategic move underlines our optimism about Africa's future, our commitment to playing a part in its social and economic development and our desire to be ever closer to our customers, consumers and stakeholders.
Our overall performance in 2020 was outstanding, and we closed the year significantly above our best-case scenario for COVID-19. These results are something that everyone at Equatorial Coca-Cola should be proud of, and they demonstrate that we have the team and the capabilities to overcome the deepest of crises and emerge stronger.
Despite the continued challenge of operating in the midst of a global pandemic, we managed to make progress on our path toward becoming a more responsible business. The pandemic posed major challenges to the projects we had planned for the year, but our teams found new ways to deliver value for our communities at this critical time.
We are proud of the work that we have done to secure the health and safety of our teams. It is because of this work, and our people's persistent observation of COVID-19 safety measures & protocols, that we have been able to continue operating and serving our customers non-stop throughout the pandemic.
We are also excited by the growing conversation in our business. Through surveys, OpenLine meetings and internal campaigns we are hearing from and communicating to our people more than ever. We hope to use this conversation to make Equatorial Coca-Cola Bottling Company an even better place to work going forwards.
This will help us to be more resilient and agile as we adapt to the new realities of our markets. Our customers and consumers are facing a great deal of change and we will need to work together to become more and more effective at meeting their evolving needs.
We want to thank the whole Equatorial Coca-Cola Community for their efforts over the last year. Our results were nothing short of remarkable, given the circumstances. Congratulations and we look forward to working with you in the coming year.
About us
We're a bottling partner of The Coca-Cola Company across North and West Africa, where our teams produce, commercialize and distribute the world's most-loved brands and a wide choice of high-quality beverages.
Our project in Africa started in 1989 with a concession from The Coca-Cola Company to operate in Equatorial Guinea. The resulting venture was later joined by Guinea Conakry, Mauritania, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and The Gambia.
Equatorial Coca-Cola Bottling Company (ECCBC) was created in 1997 to combine the operations of all these countries and serve as platform for future growth. In the last two decades we have expanded our operations to new territories in Africa, such as Ghana, Morocco and Algeria; and today ECCBC bottles and distributes the Coca-Cola Company's portfolio in 13 African countries, reaching over 100 million consumers, serving more than 200,000 points of sale and achieving 1.4 billion transactions per year.
Our History
- Since 1951
- The Daurella Family has maintained a remarkable, long standing partnership with Coca-Cola since 1951.
Along the way, they acquired the rights to distribute Coca-Cola in Equatorial Guinea.
- 1989
- Operations were discontinued due to war, but they were restarted in 1989, with just 6 employees and 50,000 cases
- 1993-1996
- COBEGA's African business expands to new territories: Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Cape Verde and the Gambia
- 1997
- ECCBC is born, along with the acquisitions of Ghana and Sierra Leone. Soon afterwards, Liberia and São Tomé are added to company's growing footprint.
- 2002
- The first investments are made in Morocco. The full number of acquisitions in Morocco are completed in 2005.
- 2004
- ECCBC acquires Ceris S.A., a Cape Verdean brewery.
- 2005
- ECCBC acquires Fruital S.A., a Coca-Cola bottler in central Algeria
- 2010
- ECCBC reaches 100 million unit cases (570 million liters).
- 2012
- ECCBC reaches 150 million unit cases (951 million liters).
- 2013
- ECCBC starts the first Coca-Cola franchise in South Sudan.
- 2020
- Equatorial Coca-Cola establishes the group's Head Office in Casablanca, Morocco
- 2021
- Present Day
Our Vision
To become the best beverage company in each of the countries that we operate in and the leading Coca-Cola system bottler in Africa.
Our Values
Accountability
We are accountable and transparent in everything we do. As responsible members of our communities, we think globally and act locally.
Diversity
As a leading company in Africa with roots in a family business, we understand the tough realities of the countries where we operate and respect both their diversity and their heritage.
Passion
We share the hopes and aspirations of our local communities and we believe in what we do. We have fun at work and we are passionate about refreshment, consumers, customers and people.
Excellence
Whilst our production, quality and execution are consistently excellent, we can adjust to the challenges of our markets with speed and agility.
A winning team
We are more than the sum of our parts through trust, collaboration and dedication. We don't just work hard, we work smart.
Sustainability
We work together in harmony with our communities in order to preserve the natural environment for future generations.
Our Markets
13
Countries
27
Production lines
3,243
Employes
469
Turnover
(M€)
1,424
Millions of transactions
7
Bottling plants
Covid-19
Our Business during the Pandemic
The pandemic forced businesses across the world to rethink their business priorities. The closing of hotels, restaurants, and cafes – a key commercial channel for our business – prompted us revisit the fundamentals of our mission and redefine our strategy to match the new conditions. As the pandemic evolved, our teams reacted quickly to devise, test and deploy innovative ways to achieve our mission to refresh our communities with the world's most loved beverages.
After the closure of many of our points of sale, as movement and certain business activities became restricted, we sought out new ways to reach our consumers: either by ensuring that our customers were still able to reach the consumer in this difficult climate or by developing novel ways to reach them ourselves.
Throughout the pandemic, we have mobilised multi-disciplinary teams across our territories in record time, to design and implement bespoke solutions for the challenges that each of our markets face. By adopting a learning by-doing approach and sharing learnings across the business units our teams were able to react with speed and flexibility, incrementally improving their solutions, delivering results and producing valuable insights.
As a company, one of the biggest challenges we face in these uncertain times is to anticipate the needs of our customers and consumers. However, in the last few years we have worked hard to improve our agility so that we can always offer the best service and the best products to our consumers regardless of emergent conditions. Going forward, we will build on these initiatives, learning from our successes in 2020 and striving to keep this entrepreneurial mindset alive, as we seek to deliver better and more responsive service to our customers and consumers.
Covid-19
Summary of Projects
The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted business as usual, and companies, governments and communities alike had to put aside their plans to react fast to the challenges it presented
As a result, many of our projects for the year had to be postponed as we responded on a country-by-country basis to the pandemic. Here is a short (and by no means exhaustive) summary of some of the ways in which our teams have sought to meet the needs of our communities during the pandemic.
Ghana
- USD 100,000 donation to IFRC: The Coca-Cola Foundation donated to Ghana's COVID-19 response through the International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies.
- Donation in support of a public health communication project & COVID-19 radio awareness project.
- Donation to health workers & low-income families.
- Product campaign with awareness and donation.
Algeria
- Daily meal donation for health workers.
- Donation to low-income families in Ramadan.
- 2 ambulances were provided to the local municipality.
Guinea
- USD 100,000 donation to IFRC: The Coca-Cola Foundation donated to Guinea's COVID-19 response through the International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies.
Mauritania
- Teampreneurship: our partners expanded the project reaching out to those affected by COVID-19, providing them skills and training, such as producing masks and doctors' gowns.
- Medshare medical equipment container with an estimated value of USD 200,000.
Morocco
- MAD 5 Million (USD 550,000) donation to the National COVID-19 Fund.
- Operation Dar L'Ftour: Food donation during Ramadan.
- USD 200,000 value product donation for frontline workers.
- Mask delivery to points of sale staff.
Sierra Leone
- 30 Tarpaulin tents donation to the 34 Military Hospitals in Freetown.
- Glasses delivery as part of Let Your Eyes Enjoy! 361 prescription glasses have recently been delivered to Connaught Hospital Freetown.
- 50 Veronica buckets donation in support of the local municipality's COVID-19 response for use in public areas.
Cape Verde
- 1,350 m3 of treated water provision to Hospital Agostinho Neto from our water plant in order to support the cleaning of bed sheets and clothes at hospital laundry.
- Product donation - mainly water - for medical staff and patients
Investing in Our Future
We Are on the Move
In 2020, we made the strategic decision to relocate our group's Head Office to Casablanca, Morocco. This move is a key milestone in Equatorial Coca-Cola's journey, growing from a team of just six to a key bottling partner of the Coca-Cola Company in North and West Africa with more than 3,000 employees.
Since the company began its activities in 1989, Equatorial Coca-Cola has consolidated its position as an integral part of its local communities, by supplying the world's favourite beverage brands to them and through social and environmental actions that seek to address their needs.
This historic relationship has now been formalised with the establishment of Equatorial Coca-Cola's Head Office on the African continent. This strategic move underlines the company's optimism about Africa's future, its commitment to playing a part in its social and economic development and its desire to be ever closer to its customers, consumers and stakeholders. Equally important in our decision-making was Casablanca's excellent regional connections, which place the leadership team - working under the New Operating Model - closer to the company's day-to-day operations and enable us to react in an agile manner to the evolving needs of our customers.
We always look for opportunities to create value for all our stakeholders and a big part of that is finding ways to make our business more customer-focused. This move will enable Equatorial Coca-Cola to deliver that value, guided by our vision of becoming the best beverage company in each of the countries we operate and a leading Coca-Cola bottler in Africa. We have been close to our communities for more than 30 years and this move presents a platform for us to develop an even more meaningful and fruitful relationship with them for the shared future.
Investing in Our Future
Our People
Keeping our people safe
The COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on workplace health and safety, as conditions at the workplace suddenly had huge implications for life in our wider communities. We are proud of the work we did to keep our people safe in 2020 and the work that we continue to do: enforcing social distancing rules, monitoring temperature and other symptoms, providing our team members with personal protective equipment (PPE) and running periodic testing for employees.
At Equatorial Coca-Cola we know that our team is key to our success and so we aim not only to excel at developing and observing exceptional safety measures during situations like the COVID-19 pandemic or the 2014 Ebola epidemic, but also in observing the routine safety measures that mean our team members can return home to their families safe every day. Learn more about what we are doing to keep our employees safe in the Zero Is Possible section of this report.
Investing in Our Future
Our Projects
Gazelle
In 2020, Gazelle made progress towards its goal: transforming Equatorial Coca-Cola, making it leaner, more efficient and ultimately, more competitive. Gazelle has now entered its third phase - the implementation of the 130+ initiatives identified, designed and planned during the first two phases of the program.
More than 60 of the Gazelle initiatives are ongoing, with some already creating value for the business. Here are a few notable projects from last year:
Morocco
A distribution execution project in Morocco has improved this key area of our interaction with our customers. The project boasts a number of benefits, including the reduction of distribution costs, improving visibilty on our distributors physical & financial flows and most importantly, improving the level of service to our customers and consumers.
Algeria
A project to standardize transport prices in Algeria has already resulted in cost reductions for our logistics team. The project has had the added benefit of allowing the team to focus on providing the best conditions for strategic locations and suppliers.
WAC
In another project, the WAC Business Unit relocated its office, merging their office space with the Ghana team's. This project has the added bonus of reducing the distance between the BU and local teams and helping our BU- and group-level functions partner effectively with our operations teams.
- 130+ projects identified and designed
- 60+ projects in progress
- 60+ employees received capability training
- 520 hours of training
Investing in Our Communities
SDG aligned Sustainability Strategy
At Equatorial Coca-Cola, we have a long history of partnering with our communities to create long-term value for our shared future. We know the importance that our local communities have for our business. When they thrive, so do we.
And so whenever we can, Equatorial Coca-Cola has endeavoured to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs and align our strategy to join people everywhere who are working to make our joint future brighter.
Investing in Our Communities
Our Sustainability Strategy is Evolving
We are proud of the work that we have done in recent years in partnership with governments, organisations and our communities to create value for our shared future. The work done by our team and our partners is nothing short of remarkable.
However, as explained in the Our Projects section, a deep analysis of the past years and emerging risks made clear to us the need for our sustainability strategy to evolve, broadening its scope to address a wider set of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues.
This reflects our belief that our success is tied up with that of our local communities, and that when they thrive, so do we. That is also why, even though its scope is expanding, our strategy will continue to be guided by the UN's Sustainability Development for 2030 and Coca-Cola's global targets for 2030.
Look out for changes in coming editions about how we are adapting our strategy to meet to the needs of the future, both for our communities and our planet.
Investing in Our Communities
Family Business Network (FBN)
The UN SDGs are ambitious and we know that achieving them will require the companies, governments, civil society and communities working together.
We believe that increased transparency from companies will be key to facilitating this collaboration. When companies are transparent about how their business impacts their communities and the planet, we can work toward to find solutions to making that impact overwhelmingly positive.
In 2020, we demonstrated this belief by taking part in a worldwide study carried out by the United Nations Conference On Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in partnership with the Family Business Network (FBN). The study aimed to investigate the extent to which family businesses have adopted transparent and comparable measures of their contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
We are committed to continuing to work with a wide range of partners to contribute to the achievement of the UN's SDGs for 2030.
Investing in Our Communities
Our World, Without Waste
We have a key role to play in protecting the environment of the countries we serve.
Since the Coca-Cola Company's 2018 announcement of the World Without Waste program, recycling has been the top priority in Equatorial Coca-Cola's sustainability strategy as we partner with them to fulfil its far-reaching commitments.
RECOVER
Collected 1 bottle or canfor every one we sell BY 2030
REDUCE
Recycled contentBY 2030
Conakry Recycling Project
We are constantly looking for new recycling projects, partners and opportunities to drive towards Coca-Cola's 2030 World Without Waste committment. Last year, those efforts bore fruit when we worked with partners to develop a successful grant application to The Coca-Cola Foundation for a recycling project in Conakry, Guinea.
Developed in partnership with Fundacion Azahara, RedSalmons, and Roots for Sustainability, the project will began in 2021 with the aim of developing a waste collection system and a circular economy in Conakry. It hopes to achieve this by empowering local waste pickers through the creation of cooperatives and including them in the official municipal waste collection system.
This project expects to directly benefit up to 600 waste pickers who currently collect plastic, creating income opportunities for them whilst also improving waste collection in the city.
Glass Project
Cape Verde
At ECCBC, through our World Without Waste program, we are committed to collecting and recycling all of the packaging we sell to build a better and sustainable future.
We have donated 20 tonnes of glass to the Cape Verdean Ecotourism Association and the United Kingdom Darwin Initiative "Raiz Azul Project" to support their work recycling glass to sand, so it can be later sold for construction work. The ongoing project will see us continuing working closely with this association by donating glass on a monthly basis.
The project not only recycles glass waste but also engages the vulnerable members of Porto Rincao's community, primarily women who collect glass on Rincao's beaches. This project not only keeps glass packaging off Cape Verdean beaches, it also gives local construction companies an alternative to using the country's valuable beach sand.
Cap Challenge
Algeria
Over the summer of 2020 our team in Algeria led a plastic collection campaign called the Algerian Cap Challenge.
Our employees and their families worked together to collect bottle caps, which were then sold to a local recycling plant. The money obtained from the sale was used to donate medical supplies to children suffering from xeroderma pigmentosum, a genetic disorder that results in a decreased ability to repair DNA damage from UV light. As a result, children suffering from this disease must avoid any exposure to sunlight, either by staying indoors or by wearing protective clothing and sunscreen when outdoors. Nine of our Equatorial Coca-Cola Dive-in Volunteers and their families participated in the final delivery of the medical supplies to the families and children suffering from this debilitating disease.
Nrecycli
Algeria
In Algeria, we are piloting a local ecosystem that rewards households for collecting and sorting recyclable items. Having started with a pilot project in Ain Defla, this year the project will expand with more collection points in the city; bringing together Nrecyli, households and local recycling companies to create a recycling ecosystem that puts value in the hands of households who recycle.
We are excited to see this ecosystem grow and begin to show the people of Ain Defla the value of taking care of our shared environment!
Impact Camp
Morocco
IMPACT Lab is a start-up accelerator working to help African entrepreneurs to unleash their innovative potential. One of their key interventions in the start-up space is IMPACT Camp, an annual bootcamp designed to promote the emergence and development of start-ups with high social or environmental impact.
For its 6th edition, IMPACT Lab joined forces with Coca-Cola's World Without Waste program to accelerate the go-to-market of start-ups working on the recovery of waste from the beverage industry. 10 - 15 Moroccan & Tunisian start-ups were selected to participate in a 6-day bootcamp, competing to deliver an innovative solution to the challenge of sorting, collecting and recycling plastic packaging.
Two members of our cross functional sustainability team formed part of the panel of judges selecting the winner, who went on to receive DHS 75,000 and six months of operational support from IMPACT Lab's expert coaches.
- 10+ startups
- 6 days
- DHS 75,000
Gripe: Our Progress in 2020
Ghana
In 2017, 8 private companies launched GRIPE, a private-sector led coalition to deal with the danger that plastic waste posed to Ghana's environment. They brought together industry, government, NGOs and informal waste pickers to work together to find local solutions to this global problem.
Despite the disruption from the pandemic, GRIPE was able to make significant progress in 2020. Thanks to the employment of full time staff and the establishment of a permanent Buy Back Center, we were able to far exceed our target for tonnes of plastic collected - collecting 1806.2 tonnes ( against our initial target of just 131 tonnes). Our partnership continued to grow - one new company joined as a member in 2020 and bringing GRIPE up to 13 members.
In addition to trialing different waste collection initiatives, GRIPE continued doing the important work of leading multi-stakeholder collaboration efforts through national and international plastic programs and workgroups. They also remain leaders in advocacy efforts and in the development of creative materials to educate people on the importance of recycling and caring for our shared environment.
Investing in Our Communities
Our World, Our Water
Millions of people across the world lack access to safe drinking water and to important sanitation infrastructure.
This issue is particularly stark in Africa, and in response, we join hands with our partners to improve the access to water and build sanitation infrastructure across our territories.
Investing in Our Communities
Our Communities, Healthy
Health is a key concern for everyone, but in many of our countries, the low accessibility of lifesaving treatments make this concern more acute.
The Coca-Cola system has consistently worked to address this need and it will continue to be a focus area for Equatorial Coca-Cola going on into the future.
Project Last Mile
If you can find a Coca-Cola product almost anywhere in Africa, why not life-saving medicines? Project Last Mile (PLM) is the answer to that question. In partnership with The Coca-Cola Company, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and USAID, through PLM we leverage our supply chain capabilities to build up government's ability to deliver medical supplies to areas where they are currently unable to reach.
During the pandemic, PLM received a request from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help assess dry ice and CO2 capacity within The Coca-Cola System to support transport and storage requirements for COVID-19 vaccines. Equatorial Coca-Cola's Supply Chain and Logistics team worked hand-in-hand with the PLM team, helping PLM to conduct an analysis and feasibility assessment of existing CO2 capabilities in Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Liberia, Sierra Leone and South Sudan to support ultra-cold chain vaccine distribution.
The PLM team also continued work on Phase II of its project in Sierra Leone, redesigning the last mile delivery model for 65 primary health care units in Koinadugu and Falaba. This phase expanded the project into another district and includes the test of a digital data collection and inventory management system for reproductive health commodities. This project completed in February 2021, and showed promising results with out-of-stock rates for health commodities declining up to 14% during the course of PLM's support. We look forward to seeing what continues to come from the consistently excellent work of the PLM team!
- 65 Primary Health Care Units impacted
World Health Day Donation
Ghana
On World Health Day, Equatorial Coca-Cola Ghana made a donation to Teshie Community Clinic in support of the work that healthcare workers have been doing throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. We donated much-needed medical equipment such as disposable gloves and surgical masks to the clinic in addition to an assortment of our beverages for refreshment.
Covid-19 Private Sector Fund
Ghana
At the end of June 2021 Equatorial Coca-Cola Ghana made its third donation to the National COVID-19 Private Sector Fund. This donation brings the company's full contribution to the fund up to EUR 67.5K following two earlier donations in 2020 and 2021. These contributions were special, as they were made possible through a partnership with our consumers: 10 pesewas from every purchase of our 1.5L pack were set aside and donated to the fund. We believe that this donation demonstrates the power of working together, with the support of our consumers, Equatorial Coca-Cola can be a force for good!
Investing in Our Communities
Our Communitites, Empowered
Women and the youth across Africa have critical roles to play in our economies and communities.
However, they face a number of barriers to empowering themselves economically. This affects not only them, but it also means that Africa cannot access the dormant workforce that it needs to build a better future. We seek to breakdown these barriers and help them achieve their potential.
SEET project
SEET project was launched in 2019 with the aim to boost entrepreneurial development by providing professional training to the country's youth. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, we worked with our partners to expand the project to reach even more people, providing support to small and medium enterprises. Here are some of the highlights from this project:
- 4 'Teampreneur' teams were formed
- 40 people were trained with business development skills
- 75 more people were provided with training and support programs under the expanded COVID-19 program
- 100,000 masks were created and delivered
- 1,000 work coats were tailored and delivered
- 60 handwashing devices were also created and delivered
Dar L'Ftour 2021
Every year during Ramadan, Equatorial Coca-Cola partners with The Coca-Cola Company and other Moroccan associations to carry out Operation Dar L'Ftour.
For the 18th year running we distributed thousands of ftours - the evening meal that breaks the daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan. The goal is to make sure that the ftour remains a time of happiness and togetherness for families in need during this all important time. This work has taken on a new sense of importance given the effect that the pandemic has had on the health and livelihoods of so many, so we are proud of the work our team in Morocco continues to do.
- 10 associations involved in the project
- 23,300 ftours distributed to the community
