Jaak Mikkel becomes General Manager for Coca‑Cola HBC Poland

Coca‑Cola HBC announces the Serbian native Jovan Radosavljevic as the new General Manager of Coca‑Cola HBC Romania, starting May 1st. Currently, he leads the operations of Pivara Skopje, a joint venture between Coca‑Cola HBC & Heineken in FYROM. Jaak Mikkel, currently General Manager for Coca‑Cola HBC Romania will - at the same time - take over the position of General Manager for Coca‑Cola HBC Poland.

Jovan Radosavljevic started his career at Coca‑Cola HBC more than 16 years ago, as a merchandiser, in Serbia. Since 1998, he held various positions and, in 2009, became Sales Manager of Coca‑Cola HBC in Serbia, expanding his responsibility to Montenegro in 2010 and Kosovo in 2011. Jovan is well acquinted with Romanian market, due to almost three years spent here as Commercial Manager, during which he led his team to redefine the commercial strategy. Now he leads a team of 370 people in Pivara Skopje, a position in which he followed a very clear and strong objective: to build a highly effective long-term growth strategy for the company that led to record high volume and revenue. Moreover, Jovan pursued a strong people agenda, focusing on collaboration, talent identification and promotion.

Jaak Mikkel has worked for 10 years in Coca‑Cola HBC, where he first started as Baltic Sales Manager in 2008. In 2012, he was promoted to General Manager of Coca‑Cola HBC Macedonia, and, together with his team, delivered highest-ever soft drink volume and market share growth for both soft drink and beer categories. He has been for four years General Manager for Coca‑Cola HBC Romania, led the turnaround of the business reaching some of the highest volumes and revenues in its history, entering new categories and consolidating company’s position as leader of Romanian beverage industry. His priority constituted the development of the team, Romanians being appreciated in many countries of Coca‑Cola HBC Group.

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I have received with great pleasure this new assignment in Romania. It is an honour for me to be the General Manager of Coca‑Cola HBC Romania, one of the most important countries in our Group. I am really looking forward to start contributing quickly and continue the growth of our business, together with all my colleagues there. I know how professional and passionate the Romanian team is, I am all convinced we’ll tap into new future opportunities with courage and full speed. My family and I have very fond memories of our last stay in the beautiful and welcoming Romania, we are excited to be back!

Jovan Radosavljevic
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Romania is a country I’ll cherish and it’ll always be close to my heart. It has amazing landscapes like Dorna’s land or Transfagarasan. And I love the people - my wonderful, warm and determined colleagues or many other Romanians I met always with a smile on their face and with a good energy. Our business in Romania has grown significantly for three years in a row now – this is a result of us being innovative, vibrant, putting our customers and consumers needs first. I am so, so proud of them and I take this opportunity to show my sincere gratitude and admiration to the whole Romanian team!