MUMBAI: Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, the company owned bottling partner of The Coca-Cola Company in India, has appointed Gaurav Chaturvedi as the new Human Resource vice president.

Chaturvedi is currently the zonal VP, operations, Andhra Pradesh, the largest zone for HCCBPL in sales terms.

Chaturvedi will take charge from 15 April and continue to report to HCCBPL CEO T Krishnakumar. This is the first time in two decades since Coca-Cola’s re-entry into India that a senior operations manager has been designated to take over the Human Resource responsibilities in the company. Chaturvedi replaces P V Ramna Murthy, who has decided to pursue opportunities outside the company.

Speaking on the appointment, Krishnakumar said, “The bottling business is exemplified by intense operations where people are the most important asset and hence it helps to have a person who has worked through operations to be head of the people's function. Gaurav has spent 16 years in various parts of operations of HCCB and hence is an excellent fit to manage the people’s function and take it to the next level of excellence”.

Chaturvedi joined Coca-Cola in 1997 and over the last 16 years has held positions of responsibilities across functions and geographies. During the course of his career with the Coca-Cola System in India, he has headed a large plant (Wada), a sales territory (Nasik), two bottling units (East UP and West UP), and set up the Operational Excellence function across the country.

As a part of the vision 2020 for India, HCCBPL is focusing on becoming a world class organisation, building a culture of execution excellence and driving returns.

India is a key growth market for The Coca-Cola Company and the company envisages India as amongst the top five markets at the end of 2020. India is currently, the seventh largest market for The Coca-Cola Company, globally.