KO Coca Cola Company

By Ezequiel Minaya and Jennifer Maloney 

Coca-Cola Co., which is attempting to keep pace with increasingly health-conscious consumers, named a new finance chief Thursday amid plans for current CFO and company veteran Kathy Waller to retire next year.

Ms. Waller, who has been at the center of the Atlanta-based company's push in recent years to expand beyond sugary soft drinks, is scheduled to retire in March.

Ms. Waller joined Coca-Cola in 1987 as a senior accountant and has had to balance cost-cutting with the company's drive to innovate new products during her tenure as CFO. She rose to the post in 2014.

She will be succeeded by John Murphy, who is currently president of Coke's Asia Pacific group. Mr. Murphy has worked in a number of finance, strategy and operational roles since joining the company in 1988.

Ms. Waller "leaves a great legacy as a leader, including as a mentor who created a strong organization and put the building blocks in place to continue to transform and modernize our finance function," Coke Chief Executive James Quincey said in a statement.

In an interview, Ms. Waller said she was proud of helping create a pipeline of women leaders at Coke. She also pointed to instilling greater efficiency and the beverage giant's acquisitions under her tenure as points of pride.

Between 2015 and 2017, selling, general and administrative expenses at the company were cut 24% to offset a 20% decline in revenue, according to company filings. During the period, gross margin strengthened to 62% from 60.2%, according to FactSet.

The company this year made the largest brand acquisition in its history, saying it would pay $5.1 billion for British coffee-shop chain Costa.

"We're doing the right things," she said. "And John [Murphy] will continue that with the organization."

Mr. Murphy, who has long been touted as a rising star at Coke, said last month that the company had to focus on developing a performance-based culture, building brands that connect with consumers, and moving the business toward an asset-light, high-margin and high-return model.

"Over the last couple of years, we've been working towards an ambition...to become a total beverage company evolving from our traditional focus around sparkling beverages," he said Sept. 26 at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions CEO Conference, according to a transcript of the event.

The CFO transition was part of a shuffle of leadership at the soft-drink giant, with Coke also appointing new chief operating and chief technical officers.

Mr. Quincey has aimed to get the iconic company to shed a culture of cautiousness, expand into new categories and bring products to market faster.

Before Mr. Quincey was named CEO in May 2017, investors and analysts criticized Coke for focusing too long on sugary drinks. Coke since then has pushed harder to diversify, launching more than 500 new products and variants last year.

During the company's latest quarter ending in June, sales declined 8% from a year earlier to $8.9 billion, as a result of the divestiture of its bottling operations. Coke posted a profit of $2.3 billion, compared with $1.4 billion a year ago.

Micah Maidenberg contributed to this article.

Write to Ezequiel Minaya at ezequiel.minaya@wsj.com and Jennifer Maloney at jennifer.maloney@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 18, 2018 17:49 ET (21:49 GMT)

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