Coca Cola HBC shares rally as board confirms succession plan in progress after sudden death of CEO Dimitris Lois

FTSE 100 bottling firm Coca Cola HBC said this morning that it has started a succession process following the sudden death of its chief executive last month.

Dimitris Lois passed away early last month, just weeks after announcing he was temporarily stepping down on medical leave.

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CFO Michalis Imellos, who has been serving as acting CEO since Lois went on medical leave, will stay in the position for the time being. The board said today that it had a succession plan for the permanent position and that process was underway.

The announcement was made during a third quarter update, in which the group said it had achieved six per cent revenue growth.

Shares in the company were up 1.1 per cent today.

The firm, which is a leading bottler of Coca-Cola’s products across Europe and now Nigeria, increased volumes and revenue per case in the period.

“We are very pleased with the strong revenue delivery in the quarter, well balanced between broad-based volume growth and substantial price/mix improvement,” said Imellos. “We go into the final quarter encouraged by our progress and confident in delivering on our expectations for the full year.”

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