Coke institutes U.S. hiring freeze

The weak U.S. economy has prompted the Coca-Cola Co. to institute an absolute domestic hiring freeze for the remainder of the year, a spokesman for the company confirmed with Reuters on Friday.

Beverage Digest first reported the news after obtaining an internal memo from Coca-Cola North America President Alexander “Sandy” Douglas, who cited “the challenging economic environment” as the reason behind the freeze.

Coca-Cola spokesman Scott Williamson told Reuters that the freeze will allow the company “to focus all of our attention on our plans to continue to build our business with our retail partners, packaging initiatives and a host of other programs that we’ll have for 2008.”

The company had instituted a hiring freeze earlier in the year, BD reported, that made exceptions for “mission-critical” positions. The latest freeze does not. BD said only job offers made before July 1 would be fulfilled, but the freeze does not include vitaminwater, Fuze, Odwalla, or positions in Mexico or Canada.

Source: BevNET.com Staff