The South African will take up her position at the end of December 2021 and will succeed Simon Everest who will retire in December after 20 years with The Coca-Cola Company.
Prior to her appointment, Fora Jika was director of logistics at Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA).
Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) is Coca-Cola’s eighth largest bottling partner in the world and the largest on the African continent. CCBA serves 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa, Eswatini, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Namibia, Mayotte, Comoros, Botswana and Zambia. CCBA has more than 36 bottling plants serving more than 600,000 outlets across the continent. The company employs more than 16,000 people and reports being the market leader in each of its 13 territories.
Mining engineer
Flora Jika joined CCBSA in 2008 from the mining engineering field, where she worked as a mining supervisor and member of the pillar extraction process team. Since then, they explain, her career has been marked by pioneering achievements. She has held several positions within the company and, during her 13-year career at CCBSA, has been instrumental in leading several projects, including the implementation of the first 30-meter truck/trailer combination in the FMCG industry in South Africa. Flora Jika and her team worked also on a project to reduce road freight and shift it to rail. Once completed, this project would reduce the number of trucks on the road and improve safety.
Flora Jika holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in mining engineering and industrial engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Flora Jika, it is explained, is passionate about helping women grow and believes it is essential to put structures in place to keep women engaged as they move up the ladder. This includes assigning mentors to female employees, encouraging conversations among women, and sharing ideas on how to manage family and work commitments.
To that end, Flora Jika led the Women@CCBSA forum, a network for women in the company to connect with each other and access resources to advance their careers and find a good work-life balance.
