Coke in joint training for female entrepreneurs

Under the global campaign titled “Sustainable Business with Coca-Cola Programme”, and supported locally by an investment of more than Bt180 million over the next seven years, more than 45,000 Thai female entrepreneurs in Coca-Cola’s value chain will be economically empowered by equipping them with management skills in the areas of merchandising, inventory and finance so that they will be able to grow their businesses.

Antonio Del Rosario, general manager of Coca-Cola (Thailand), said the campaign formed part of the Coca-Cola Company’s global “5by20” programme, which aims to empower economically 5 million female entrepreneurs within the company’s value chain in more than 100 countries by 2020. 

Launched in 2010, the initiative has already reached some 550,000 female producers, suppliers, distributors, retailers, recyclers and artisans in more than 44 countries. 

It is intended to drive progress towards the company’s “2020 Vision”, and also towards broader national and international economic and social development goals.

“In Thailand, we aim to train 7,000 female entrepreneurs by the end of this year, and up to 45,000 women by 2020,” Del Rosario said.

The training offered by the “Sustainable Business with Coca-Cola Programme” includes customer behaviour and competitor analysis, customer service improvement, merchandising and inventory management for the whole store, and financial training.

Coca-Cola will also work closely with partners from the public and private sectors, including the Skill Development Department, which will provide training venues nationwide and certificates to entrepreneurs who successfully complete the training.

It will also work closely with TMB Bank as the programme’s financial partner, which will implement the financial-management module of the training requirements, he added.

Del Rosario said that according to Unicef (the United Nations Children’s Fund), women control some US$20 trillion (Bt640 trillion) of worldwide spending and do 66 per cent of the world’s work. However, women earn only 10 per cent of the world’s income, of which 90 per cent is spent on the well-being of their family and community. 

Therefore, the benefits of helping further empower these women to maximise their income sources are bound to have more powerful and positive impacts on our community as a whole, said the general manager. 

“In Thailand, we know there is huge potential for this programme to reach a significant number of flourishing small-business owners, which will undoubtedly contribute a number of economic and social benefits to our community. From our pilot project rolling out in Bangkok last year, we have seen sales increase by between 17 and 20 per cent on average for women entrepreneurs being trained with us,” he said.

There are currently about 250,000 retailers in the Coca-Cola system in Thailand, and 60 per cent of the business owners are female. 

Del Rosario said that according to ACNielsen, the overall Thai market for sparkling beverages was flat in the first six months when compared with the same period last year. 

Coca-Cola controlled 58 per cent of the market, as of end-June, according to the market-research company.

He said that although the Thai carbonated-beverage market had been dampened by the economic slowdown, Coca-Cola still posted growth during the period. 

“We will continue always to invest in Thailand, not only in the company itself, but also in our business partners,” he said.