Case Studies

Going greener

Forestry Infiltration Area, Italy

In Nogara, Italy, we launched a joint project that will add up to 1.5 million m3 of water every year to the local aquifer near our production plant. The Forest Infiltration Area – a joint project between Coca-Cola HBC Italy and the Consorzio di Bonifica Veronese – will be a new network of canals, trees and shrubs that will revitalise fresh water. Water extracted from the River Adige will continuously flow into the network of canals to refresh the groundwater acquifer. From this aquifer, hundreds of local wells will be used to extract water for agriculture and community use.

Making progess on circular packaging  

Empty bottles are a valuable resource, and recycling them can help to decrease our costs and achieve our collection targets. Nine of our markets now have Deposit Return Schemes (DRS). Four successful DRS have been launched between December 2023 and January 2025 in Romania, Hungary, the Republic of Ireland and Austria. DRS help to consistently deliver high packaging collection rates. For example, in Romania (launched December 2023) results are encouraging, with an average return rate of 77% of containers sold in the market in the last three months of 2024. In 2025, we expect to achieve, on average, above 60% recycled material in our PET packaging in all our EU countries and Switzerland.

In Nigeria, our innovative approach to collection and recycling is creating value for us and local communities. In 2024, we built the country’s first-ever Coca-Cola System-owned and operated packaging collection hub, allowing us to collect plastic bottles for recycling.

Supporting DRS in Europe  

DRS are fast becoming the system of choice in Europe. They consistently deliver high rates of collection, typically over 90%, with an exceptional quality of foodgrade feedstock for recycling. This in turn supports higher recycling yields for bottle-to-bottle and can-to-can recycling compared with a co-mingled collection approach.

Nine of our Coca-Cola HBC markets now have DRS in place, with two more expected in 2025 and up to 10 more anticipated in 2026-2028.

Customer Collaboration

We partnered with Carrefour Italy and developed a three-year sustainability-driven strategic roadmap with the objective to increase the share of beverages sold in rPET bottles by putting various initiatives in place. ‘Let’s recycle together’ was the first initiative that was deployed in co-operation with Marevivo, a local NGO protecting sea and environment.

Dedicated in-store activations aimed to educate consumers on how to properly recycle beverage packaging and demonstrate the role that our 100% rPET portfolio plays in circular packaging. This joint initiative generated sales and showed better results than previous activations, creating value for both us and Carrefour.

Flood support for communities impacted by devastating flooding

In 2024, the Coca-Cola HBC Foundation donated €1.55 million to communities impacted by devastating floods in Europe and Nigeria. These grants will support projects that target local needs, for example, rebuilding houses and community centres, providing food and emergency supplies, and replacing damaged medical equipment. Founded in 2023, the Coca-Cola HBC Foundation continues our tradition of giving back to our communities.

Supporting our people in Ukraine

During the third year of the war in Ukraine, our people, with the support of the whole Coca-Cola System, continued to demonstrate resilience, mutual support and collaboration. Their safety remains our number one priority, while adaptation and winning in the new reality became our motto for 2024. This year, we continued with stress management and resilience webinars, and town halls with our General Manager and the local leadership team. Based on these discussions, we implemented several initiatives, including the upgrade of the basement of our premises into a fully operating shelter with comfortable working conditions. We also launched an internship programme, covering all functions and enriching our organisation with 15 young talents.

We continue supporting our Diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI) agenda, having started a cooperation with the ‘Zhyttelyub’ foundation, which helps the more senior population of Ukraine in reskilling and employment. We are developing our ‘Women in Sales’ community to support female employees in their career development. We continue living our corporate values, driving internal volunteering and helping the wider community of Ukraine.

Strengthening diversty together 

We received nine diversity-related awards in 2024 in recognition of our efforts to increase gender diversity. In Greece, we received the Gold award for Accelerating Female Professionals. In Austria, our four awards include the Seal of Quality of In-house advancement of Women.

Training young bartenders

In Greece, we collaborated with top HoReCa customers and our recognised Brand Ambassadors to offer free masterclasses to 570 bartenders and baristas, levelling up their capabilities on modern mixology, spirits, and coffee trends and techniques. This initiative equipped participants with advanced skills and industry connections, and offered globally recognised scholarships in coffee and spirits. In Romania, we have launched the Barmasters Academy to offer specialised bartending and barista training for aspiring HoReCa professionals. Partnering with HoReCa customers, this programme offers practical, high-quality learning experiences for young people.

During the event, Natalia presented the results of a survey carried out on behalf of Coca-Cola HBC in Poland. These showed that 3 in 4 young people believe that using modern technologies will translate into their future in the labour market.