Forty employees will lose their jobs in Coca-Cola's global redundancy package.
The cuts - all from the administrative ranks - form part of the soft-drink giant's sacking of 6,000 employees worldwide after a year of disappointing earnings and bad publicity over product recalls in Europe.
Out of a total workforce of 30,000, about 2,500 positions in the company's European headquarters will go, with 800 shed in the United States and the rest in other countries.
Lo Bing-chung, vice-president and director of external affairs of Coca-Cola China, said 40 of its 200 staff would lose their jobs.
'Staff from every grade were affected, from senior managers to clerks. Some of them took early retirement.' Mr Lo said that of the 30,000 only 600 worked in the region. A further 15,000 were indirectly employed in 30 bottling plants.
Coca-Cola estimates that the redundancy scheme could save US$300 million (HK$2.33 billion) a year.
