Coke to Cut Up to 2,000 Jobs in Coming Weeks: WSJ

Coca-Cola Co (NYSE:KO) plans to cut 1,000-2,000 jobs globally in the coming weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The job cuts are part of Coke's $3 billion cost-cutting plans, which it announced in October after posting a 14 percent drop in third-quarter profit, according to the Journal.

Job-cut notices will go out to North American staffers by Jan. 8 and to international employees by Jan. 15, the Journal reported.

The impact is expected to be significant at Coke’s headquarters in Atlanta and global regional offices, where more than 10 percent of corporate staff could lose their jobs, according to the report.

The company's bottling and distribution divisions, which account for more than 85 percent of the company's more than 130,000 employees, are largely out of the firing line for now, the report said.

Coke is also introducing stricter budgeting such as asking executives to swap limousines for taxis, and has canceled its Christmas party for Wall Street analysts, the Journal reported.

The company was not immediately available for comment.

Coke said in October that it was targeting $3 billion in cost savings by 2019, up from the $1 billion it announced in February.

Wintergreen Advisers, a minority shareholder of the company, last week called for the replacement of Chief Executive Muhtar Kent, calling him "incapable of leading Coke's turnaround."

Shares of the Atlanta-based company were up 1.6 percent at $43.01 on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting By Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)