When we rise, Africa rises
As a Coca-Cola bottler, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) believes that when we rise, Africa rises.
By providing a stronger, more successful Coca-Cola system in Africa, we create greater shared value for the businesses and the communities we serve across the value chain, including local suppliers and retailers: we seek to be part of our customers’ growth strategies.
We invest substantially in our people and in their growth and development: in building their capability, we build our capacity.
We are excited to be part of the emergence of a sustainable and powerful continent and we are proud to offer consumers greater choice, broader availability and better value in our quest to become the world’s best bottler.
Our shared vision for how we work together to create social value and make a positive difference for the customers and communities we serve involves 3 pillars:
- A refreshed Africa
- An empowered Africa
- A healthy Africa.
A refreshed Africa
With our heavy reliance on natural ingredients we are acutely aware of reducing our key consumption metrics and working with the communities in which we operate to mitigate the global environmental risks to us all.
Water
We actively work with stakeholders to secure shared water resources for our business and local communities. In Ethiopia, East Africa Bottling Share Company’s (EABSC), a division of CCBA, has been supplying 10 000 litres of clean, safe drinking water per day for displaced people in Deder, Oromia Region. As part of the Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN), The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation has funded a two-year WASH, which will positively impact 20 000 people by addressing water and sanitation problems in the Bambasi and Menge districts of Benishangul-Gumuz region.
In Ghana, Voltic (GH) Limited, a division of CCBA, commissioned a borehole for the Anoff Community School – near Voltic’s Akwadum plant – which previously lacked access to potable water. Nairobi Bottlers Limited, a division of CCBA in Kenya, has collaborated with the Kiambu county government, to adopt a portion of deforested land with plans to nurture it to recovery, planting 1,500 seedlings. These and many other community initiatives are in addition to the targets that we have set ourselves to improve our water efficiency by 25% from our 2010 baseline.
In 2014, we used an average of 2.03 litres of water for each litre of product produced—a 10% improvement since 2010—moving us toward our 2020 goal to use 1.7 litres of water per litre of product produced. Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA) have already surpassed the 2020 goal and are using an average of 1.63 litres of water per litre of product produced even as product volumes have increased. The company has also invested to effect significant water savings in its operations
From 2010, CCBSA reduced the volume of water used to produce each litre of soft drink by 30% – from 2.13 litres in 2010 to 1.65 litres in 2017 – representing a total saving of 726 million litres, or 290 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
This is enough water to provide 250 litres of water per day for 8 000 households for a year.
Recycling
We are also committed to reducing waste to landfill to 10% and reducing the carbon footprint of our beverages by 25% from our 2010 baseline.
We’re making progress towards delivering quality beverages sustainably through packaging innovation, resource usage minimisation, recycling, and by using recycled raw materials. We actively involve our consumers, customers, suppliers and broader community members on the journey.
In South Africa we have not only reduced the weight and consistently increased the amount of recycled PET in our plastic bottles, but we involve communities in our recycling goals through our Schools Recycling Programme. The programme has been particularly successful, having started with 40 schools in 2011 and currently has approximately 800 schools participating. To date, 4 000 tonnes of waste has been collected with about 24 231m3 landfill space saved and through the programme, 80 jobs have been created.
Coca-Cola Namibia Bottling Company (CCNBC), a division of CCBA, has partnered with Rent-a-Drum, a local waste collection company and together with other NGOs, they have formed the Recycle Nambia Forum (RNF) to run a Schools Recycling Programme which has diverted more than 750 tons of recyclables from landfills
CCBA’s Ugandan division has a business called Plastic Recycling Industries (PRI) which collects about 14 tons of plastic per day, ridding the environment of close to 400 tons of plastic per month and creating employment for over 1 500 Ugandans, especially from the vulnerable urban segment. As part of CCBA’s commitment to empowering women, 80% of the plastic collectors are previously unemployed women.
In 2017 PRI collected 25% of all the PET sold to the market. By the end of 2018, they have pledged to collect 40% and have plans to beat The Coca-Cola Company’s 100% target ahead of 2030.
In 2004, Coca-Cola in South Africa co-funded and co-created the PET Recycling Company (PETCO), an industry body that works with government on behalf of the industry to increase the value of recyclable PET and achieve sustainable growth in the region’s plastic collection system. As a result of PETCO’s efforts, more than two billion PET bottles were collected and recycled in South Africa in 2017 – equating to 5.9 million bottles recycled a day. This injected R966 million into the South African economy through the manufacture of recycled end-use products and helped generate income opportunities for 64 000 South Africans. The country has seen an increase in recycling rates from single digits in 2000 to 65% in 2017 – rates close to those of Europe and which exceed United States levels by more than 20%. In Kenya, the Company has partnered with like-minded industries to launch their version of an industry PET Recycling Company today, to promote and regulate the recycling of PET material after their initial use.
An empowered Africa
As Africa’s largest bottler with over 40% of all Coca-Cola beverage volumes in Africa and the 8th largest Coca-Cola bottler by revenue worldwide with 50 still and sparkling brands from more than 32 African bottling plants, CCBA embraces its responsibility to use its scale and resources to advance economic development on the continent. We actively drive the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights by achieving a 98% compliance on all internal and external measures.
Women empowerment
We empower women and youth in our value chain to drive real participation in the economy. Many of our CCBA countries participate in Coca-Cola’s 5by20 programme. Our recognition of both the challenges faced by women and their economic potential led to the development of our 5by20 initiative in 2010. 5by20 is Coca-Cola’s commitment to enable the economic empowerment of 5 million women entrepreneurs throughout the Coca-Cola value chain by 2020. Specifically, this means the small businesses that the Company and its bottling partners work with in more than 200 countries around the world—from fruit farmers and recyclers to retailers and artisans. By the end of 2017, Coca-Cola Kwanza (CCK), CCBA’s Tanzanian division, had empowered 33 545 women, achieving their 5by20 goal three years ahead of schedule.
Youth empowerment
In South Africa and Kenya, an initiative aimed at youth called Bizniz in a Box, enables young people to establish a retail outlet as well as internet hub in their communities. The programme is designed to create a sustainable business model by assisting participants to set up and operate their own businesses, learn sustainable business principles as well as technical skills. The longer-term objective is to create a business model that can be successfully duplicated in other markets across the CCBA territories
Employee participation
Employee volunteering is a practical way for us to make a meaningful contribution to our communities. We are actively building the participation of our employees in this regard by encouraging employees to volunteer their time in a community project that we support.
Local Sourcing
We are committed to sourcing 80% of our ingredients locally with clear indigenisation projects in place to develop small suppliers and improve their commercial viability. In Kenya, Nairobi Bottlers Limited (NBL) is committed to the President’s Big Four agenda and the Buy Kenya, Build Kenya initiative by sourcing fruit, raw materials and packaging locally.
In 2017, NBL processed 1,000MT of mangoes from farmers in Central Kenya, Coast and Tana River into fruit juice for the Kenyan market and this is expected to grow by 20% by the year 2020. NBL’s hot-fill juice manufacturing line impacts over 5,000 farmers during harvest season by providing them a ready market for their crops, and over 100 employees who work in the mango processing plant.
In South Africa, a R400 million agricultural development fund was among the conditions agreed with the Competition Commission when CCBSA was formed in 2016. Known as the Mintirho Foundation, the fund will also help the company to deliver on some of its sustainability objectives, which include sustainable agriculture, women and youth empowerment, 80% local sourcing, supplier development and relevant community partnerships. More broadly, it’s about making a tangible difference in society, helping to grow the economy and create jobs. It’s a way for the business to contribute to the country’s development.
Economic development
CCBA directly supports small enterprises to enhance their business growth and family livelihoods by investing at least 1% of our NPAT in economic development initiatives annually.
Cool Pac, a division of CCBA’s Voltic Ghana Limited’s, is a water sachet business that not only offers safe, affordable, quality drinking water for all, but which also employs over 4,000 people in 46 franchises across eight regions in Ghana. Of those, 60% are women. A further 1,200 people are employed as third party distributors. Most vendors will sell up to 350 sachets per day, meaning that on average, Cool Pac sachet sales are providing a livelihood for approximately a further 64,000 people across Ghana.
A healthy Africa
We believe that we have a responsibility to provide products that add to our consumers’ quality of life which we will achieve through our commercial imperatives of providing wider beverage choices with improved availability at better value. Simultaneously, we will encourage and assist disadvantaged communities with basic nutrition and safe water.
We are committed to working in partnership with governments, industry, retailers and consumers to encourage a healthy society and encourage choice across the continent.
We encourage and support the establishment and enforcement of responsible retail including no advertising to children under 12.
We provide low and no calorie beverage options in every market.
We support co-operative farming projects to ensure basic food and nutrition to 10,000 women and young children. We support 250 initiatives to provide safe drinking water in water stressed communities.
