Hellenic Bottling Company S.A. (
Greek: Ελληνική Εταιρεία Εμφιαλώσεως) was incorporated under the laws of Greece in 1969, with headquarters in Athens.
The Coca-Cola Company granted to the company its bottling rights in the country in 1969. The company merged with the Nigerian Bottling Company, founded by
Anastasios George Leventis, in 1981. In August 2000 Hellenic Bottling Company S.A. acquired Coca-Cola Beverages Ltd, the former European operations of
Coca-Cola Amatil, and formed
Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company S.A. In October 2012, the company announced that it was moving its operational headquarters to Switzerland and would switch its main market listing to London. This was a major blow to the Athens stock market, as Coca-Cola Hellenic was its largest listed company by value. Reasons for the move included better access to financing and a move away from crisis ridden Greece, which had prompted ratings agencies to downgrade its credit over the summer to three notches above "junk" level. In April 2013, the company changed its name from Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company to Coca-Cola HBC AG and its domicile from Greece to Switzerland. On 29 April 2013 Coca-Cola HBC AG, now a Swiss holding company, was admitted to the
London Stock Exchange’s main market. On 11 September 2013 FTSE Russell announced the company's inclusion into the
FTSE 100 and
FTSE All-Share indices. Coca-Cola HBC was named the industry leader among beverage companies in the 2014
Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In October 2017 the company's chief executive officer, Dimitris Lois, died after a period of illness. On 7 December 2017, Zoran Bogdanović was appointed as new chief executive officer by the board of directors. In January 2019, the Coca-Cola HBC announced that its
carbonated water brand Valser would use
captured carbon from the
direct air capture company
Climeworks, and in 2021, a Coca-Cola HBC official stated in an interview with
The Wall Street Journal that 30 percent of their production was done with captured carbon from Climeworks. On 18 February 2019, the company announced a deal valued at €260 million to acquire Serbian food company
Bambi from Mid Europa Partners. ==Operations==