Coca-Cola last night named Irish citizen Neville Isdell as chief executive to replace Douglas Daft, who retires this summer.
Some reports and analysts had predicted the soft-drink giant would turn to Jim Kilts, the head of Gillette, as the next Coca-Cola supremo. But Kilts took himself out of the running and other prominent executives also declined, according to news reports.
Isdell, a veteran of the global soft-drink business who joined Coca-Cola in 1966, faces a number of challenges.
Coca-Cola's decision to halt the launch of its Dasani brand of bottled water in Europe, notably in France and Germany, following its withdrawal of the drink in Britain, was the latest in a series of stumbles for the company.
Isdell worked with Coke in Asia, Oceania and Europe, and left the company in 1998 to become chairman of Coca-Cola Beverages, a company that later merged with Hellenic Bottling Company to form what was at
the time the world's second largest Coca-Cola bottler.
