Adare rolls out €240m Coca-Cola contract

Adare International is in the final stages of transitioning a Coca-Cola print management contract worth around €80m (£69m) a year.

The three-year contract from Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) for promotional goods and print services was awarded in December to Adare, and the work began to transfer fom 1 January. The final elements of the contract, incorporating the legacy Coca Cola Europe (CCE) market, will have completed their transition on Monday (3 April).

CCEP, which calls itself the world’s largest bottler, was previously split into three, Coca-Cola Europe (CCE), covering the UK, Belgium, Holland, France and Scandinavia, Coca-Cola Germany (CCG) and Coca-Cola Iberia (CCI), covering Spain and Portugal.

When the three were merged into CCEP in 2015, Coca-Cola set about developing a tender that would combine all print and promotional goods work into one contract.

Steve Pomery, Adare regional director for its Coke Network, said: “We are absolutely delighted. We felt we were in a strong position for the promotional goods but picking up print as well is a real positive endorsement for us and is also a great opportunity to move them forward to manage the combined service.

“We had a strong footprint with Coke, a good longstanding relationship with them, and obviously when they decided to take the whole piece to market that is when print came into play as well.”

Pomeroy’s network of staff working on the contract has tripled to around 60.

“We have a number of FMCG suppliers where there are synergies and that’s a real opportunity for us, it give us the opportunity to leverage ideas across the rest of the business,” added Pomeroy. 

Adare had held the tender for supplying marketing goods to CCE since 2011 and promotional goods to CCG since 2013. It first applied for the new CCEP tender back in August 2016, edging out four other companies in the final stage. 

On the promotional side, Adare is using its base of distributors and agents across Europe and in the Far East. For print it is working with an existing supply base in Spain and Germany plus onboarding recommendations from clients and new team members, and it is working with its existing supply chain in the UK.

The print element of the contract, which comprises around 25% of the contract value, mainly involves the procurement of display work, POS and semi-permanent POS. The promotional goods includes t-shirts, cups, glassware and textiles.

Meanwhile, Adare International has appointed Tracey Ellison as its new managing director, UK. Previously chief operating officer at leadership consultancy Wickland Westcott, Ellison will be working under 2016-appointed Adare International chief executive Andrew Dutton. 

Ellison has experience working with blue chip organisations in the financial services, BPO and pharmaceutical sectors. She said she was delighted to be working with “such a dynamic team to drive growth and innovation across this division”.

Dutton said: “We are delighted to welcome Tracy to Adare International. There is a significant opportunity to develop our broader marketing services proposition within our very well-established UK client base, and this appointment underlines our commitment to this important market.”