COCA-COLA GHANA: SHAPE UP OR FOLD UP!

One wonders whether the current strike action by workers of Coca-Cola's Ghanaian subsidiary, might not be confirmation of the fact that the company might be grappling with serious management challenges - a situation that might also have a bearing on the growing instances of reported cases of unwholesome Coca-Cola products being sold on the Ghanaian market.

More to the point, how can those who run the local operations of an iconic American company, famous worldwide as a quintessential American brand, import raw materials for use in Ghana, which would never be used in any of Coca Cola's American or European bottling plants? Its an unfortunate situation - and an embarrassment. And totally unacceptable in 21st century Africa.

The executives who oversee the global operations of Coca-Cola, from its American headquarters, ought to be concerned enough about what is happening in its Ghanaian subsidiary - for it is a situation serious enough to warrant their sending a team of independent American inspectors and auditors, to carry out a thorough investigation into the operations of the Coca-Cola Ghanaian subsidiary.

The victory in the American law courts by the Ogoniland people of Nigeria, over Royal Dutch Shell - which they successfully sued, and won compensation from, in America, for polluting their Ogoni homeland - ought to remind those who run Coca-Cola in the US, that they could end up in a similar bind: as a result of blow-back from the mismanagement of the company's Ghanaian subsidiary.

Above all, there is a pressing need for Coca-Cola Ghana's parent company in America, to get to the bottom of what has brought about the increase in cases of consumers of the company's products in Ghana, claiming to have been made ill, as a result of ingesting Coca Cola's soft drinks. Coca-Cola Ghana really ought to shape up - or fold up permanently. A word to the wise...

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