A history of innovation and success!

Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus, the company that produces the most famous soft drink in the world but is also active in a wide ranging portfolio of other non-alcoholic drinks, is a member of the Coca-Cola HBC multinational group. It has succeeded another historic company, Lanitis Bros Ltd, as it keeps counting on a successful 78 year old history.

Lanitis Bros Ltd was founded in 1943 by Nikos.K.Lanitis. Initially it was a cosmetics company, producing essential oils and processing citrus fruit grown on family orchards.

By 1949, the company had enriched its portfolio with the well known series of orange and lemon fruit drinks, with the first etiquettes designed by the famous Cypriot painter Tilemachos Kanthos.

A call that changed everything

The major turn came in 1950 when Nikos.K.Lanitis took a call from the US Coca-Cola Export Corporation head exports, with a proposal to take over the Cyprus bottling of the most popular soft drink.

So on June 10 1950, the company became the official bottler and distributor of Coca Cola in Cyprus, also becoming on the first bottlers of the famous product in Europe. The first bottling plant was in Limassol, while two years later in 1952, the current plant was built in Nicosia, where the official headquarters of the company was moved. This development played a decisive role in the growth of retail trade in the country.

Furthermore, further utilising the fertile orchards and favourable weather, the company launched the production and bottle of 100% natural juices (long and short lasting), fruit nectars and fruit juices in aseptic packaging, sold globally under the brand name ‘Lanitis’.

The production of essential oils and concentrated juices plays a major role in the company’s activities for a number of decades. Oranges, lemons and grapefruit were bought directly from growers throughout Cyprus, processed on the same day to secure freshness and stored in deep freeze. Quality control had always been of primary importance in all stages of production, from fruit selection to water processing, making sure that the highest European standards are adhered to.

This commitment to excellence, supported by experienced personnel and driven by an enthusiastic, dedicated management team, made the Lanitis trademark synonymous with quality, care and credibility.

Pioneering and innovative

Since its establishment, the company remains pioneering and innovative, contributing to the creation of employment positions and new economy sectors, in which it continues to be active with great success.

Having forged close bonds with the productive sectors of the economy, Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus has always contributed towards a viable and prolific system in the agricultural and food industry through dozens of millions of euro in investments.

Member of the Coca-Cola HBC Group

In 2006 and a 75.4 million euro agreement ‘vehicle’, Lanitis Bros Ltd became a member of the Coca-Cola HBC multinational Group, the top bottler of The Coca-Cola company, active in 28 countries. It was a decision that saw the business cooperation of three historic families; Leventis, Lanitis and David.

In 2020, Lanitis Bros Ltd was renamed Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus, adopting the name of the Coca-Cola HBC multinational Group.

The products

Through modern installations that include three assembly lines, two distribution units and five sales offices, Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus, has acquired a rich portfolio, providing the Cyprus market with 20 brands, 32 different kinds of packaging in various sizes and more than 250 top quality products, highly popular with Cypriot consumers.

Is it the official bottler of The Coca-Cola Company products such as Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero, Coca-Cola Light, Fanta, Sprite, FuzeTea, Powerade, the Schweppes mixers and more recently the espresso capsules and the Ready to Drink Costa Coffee packages. In addition, the company produces and distributes its local brands, including juices, fresh milk, the LANITIS dairy products as well as the KYKKOS natural mineral water. It also distributes the AYVEA natural mineral water, TSAKIRIS chips as well the Monster and Predator energy drinks.

Vision and strategy

The goal of Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus is dedication to the growth of each and every client and consumer satisfaction, 24 hours a day, 7 days of weeks. We develop along with our clients, providing the right product for every different kind of consumption. The strategy of achieving the company’s vision is based on five pillars of growth and supported by its values.

The five fundamental pillars are the following:

1. Utilising its unique portfolio; the company holds one of the strongest, richest and most flexible 24/7 portfolios in the drinks industry with products for every kind of consumption, allowing it to operate in different categories and utilise important opportunities of growth.
2. Taking the market: The Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus portfolio is strengthened by a customer oriented sales approach. The company is innovative and develops the tools it uses over time so that it’s strategy creates value for both the market and the clients, as well as the company itself.
3. Ιt accelerates growth and competitiveness through innovation and investment: Changing, innovating and digitalizing, constantly seeking ways that will simplify its processes, strengthen its performance and provide faster solutions. Τhis is the way it speeds up its investments in areas such as the supply chain, equipment, customer service and progress of its own people.
4. It accelerates the growth of its personnel: The goal is for people to work as best they can in an inspiring environment that strengthens their growth. Through a unique and fascinating journey of professional experience, the company does everything to facilitate the progress of its own people. It forges the best teams that provide unique products to the consumers and excellent customer service.
5. Building relationships of trust with society: The company’s aim is to evolve in the right way, not the easy way. This is why it tries to minimise its environmental imprint while also contributing to society and empowering the young generation by strengthening local societies and implementing environmental initiatives.

International Cooperations

At a Group level, Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus cooperates with several international organisations and business unions, such as the UN Global Compact and UNESDA. As they are organising bodies of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the Group shares experiences and gains knowledge from people in other companies and sectors.

Strategic cooperations

Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus is the strategic bottling partner of The Coca-Cola Company, the largest soft drink company in the world, operating in more than 200 countries and its products including four of the five top carbonated soft drinks globally; Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Light (diet Coke), Sprite and Fanta.
The Coca-Cola Company’s bottler in Cyprus is Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus and along with Coca-Cola Hellas, they make up the Coca-Cola System in Cyprus.

Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus combines experience in production and distribution of products and specialisation in sales, with ideas, resources and the experience of The Coca-Cola Company globally.
The Coca-Cola Company is responsible for marketing and consumer oriented campaigns, as well as the development and management of the Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite and other brands distributed in Cyprus. The Coca Cola Company is a ‘Total Beverage Company’, offering more than 500 products in over 200 countries.

Cypriot roots

Coca-Cola HBC that Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus forms part of since 2006, is a multinational group with Cypriot roots, led by two very well known families, Leventis and David.

The emblematic personality of Anastasios.G.Leventis set the foundations for the creation of today’s Coca-Cola HBC Group, as he had secured an early franchise cooperation with Coca-Cola’s American multinational back in Ghana following WW2. When the Leventis bottling company was nationalised following the country’s independence, Anastasios Leventis moved his business to Nigeria.
In 1951, the Nigerian Bottling Company was set up as a subsidiary of the A.G.Leventis Group, with its franchise bottling and selling Coca-Cola products.

The business was expanding from one country to the other and relatives of Anastasios, such as his nephew Yiorgos David, also became involved.

The company’s President G.David, Anastasios.G.Leventis nephew, who left Cyprus in 1920 when he was just 18 and later forged a business car on the African west coast, set, in Nigeria and Ghana, the foundations of the heights that the Group has reached today.
Τhe Leventis Group expansion went through various stages until it reached the point of building the Coca-Cola HBC along with the David family. It operates in 28 countries and is listed in the LSE.

One of the great historic moves is the family’s business return to Cyprus. Following a deal with Lanitis Bros, Cyprus became the 27th country in which Coca-Cola HBC would become a dominant force in the soft drink market..

Nikos.K.Lanitis

The founder of Lanitis Bros Ltd, Nikos.K.Lanitis, son of Costas, studied at Cambridge and was a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He is the founder of Lanitis Bros Ltd that initially specialised in producing essential oils and fruit drinks.
But the major turn in the company’s future came about when he took a call from the USA Coca-Cola Export Corporation head of exports and asked whether he was interested in bottling the popular soft drink in Cyprus.
In 1950, the company became the official bottler and distributor of Coca-Cola in Cyprus and amongst the first bottlers of the famous product in Europe.
Nikos Lanitis also led a different group of companies investing in various countries.
He was the founder and first President of the Employers and Industrialists Federations and also established the Cyprus Productivity Centre. He served as suppliers auditor in Cyprus from 1941 to 1942.
He wrote ‘Our Destiny’ (on the Cyprus issue), and ‘Agricultural Debt and cooperation in Cyprus’. He further wrote a number of pamphlets on trade unions and monetary issues and was a regular contributor to newspapers.

Anastasios Leventis

He was born in December 1902 on the mountainous community of Lemithou. Following the 1st World War he travelled to Marseilles where he worked and then moved to Bordeaux where he studied at a commercial school. In 1920 he was hired in a managerial position by an Anglogreek company, initially in southeastern Nigeria and then Abeokuta in 1922.
In 1936, the foundation stone is laid for the Anastasios Leventis business in Ghana, while his first stores open in 1943. His commercial company, A.G.Leventis and Co Ltd rapidly expands to the Golden Coast and Nigeria in 1942.
From then on he invests know-how and capital in a wide range of sectors, including amongst others, department stores and business activities in areas such as the production of soft drinks and beer. Today, the 3rd generation of the Leventis-David family controls and manages companies globally, amongst them Coca-Cola HBC, active across 28 countries.

Yiorgos David

Yiorgos David served as President of the Coca-Cola HBC Executive Board from 1981 through to 2016, has developed multidimensional business activity and significant charity work. He is also President of the A.G.Leventis Foundation Greek Committee. He worked at the A.G.Leventis businesses in Nigeria and since then has enjoyed a remarkable career in international business. Today he is honorary president of Coca-Cola HBC.

Anastasios David

Anastasios David, son of Yiorgos David is the President of the Coca-Cola HBC Executive Board. After graduating from Tufts University he began his career at the US Coca-Cola Bottling System. He has worked through many places in the organisation, with over 20 years experience as an investor and non-executive manager in the drinks industry. He is also former President of Navios Corporation.
Anastasios David holds a History Degree from Tufts University.
He has always been active in the international business community, serving as vice-president of Aegean Airlines S.A, vice-president οf the Cyprus Union of Shipowners and President of Sea Trade Holdings Inc Executive Board, a dry cargo ship building company.
He is also a member of the College Year Executive Board in Athens.

• 1943: Lanitis Bros Ltd is established.
• 1950: The company becomes Coca-Cola’s official bottler and distributor in Cyprus, with the first bottling factory situated in Limassol.
• 1952: The current company factory is built in Nicosia, with top of the range machinery and a capacity of 210 bottles a minute.
• 1955: Through the installation of 55 vending machines, the company operated as one of the first European businesses with full service for its clients.
• 1957: The company installs the first automated soft drink control machine in Europe.
• 1962: An agreement is reached with the Cyprus Football Federation to sponsor the cup. This special relationship between Cyprus football and the traditional football drink is the longest in the country and probably in Europe. It’s worth noting that in 1998 the competition was renamed Coca-Cola Cup.
• 1965-1969: The popular fruit soft drinks Fanta and Sprite are introduced to Cyprus.
• 1996: The company expands into the dairy industry, importing the FAGE products.
• 2001: The company expands into the fresh milk market.
• 2006: On April 5^th 2006m the company is bought by Coca-Cola Hellenic Corporation and becomes a member of the Coca-Cola HBC multinational group.
• 2011: The company acquires the bottling factory of the Kykkos bottling plant.
• 2012: Investing 7,2 million euro, Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus builds a new 5.800 square meters factory, based on Coca-Cola HBC technological standards, allowing for the effective management of product stocks and the best customer service.
• 2013: Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus incorporates the water resources management programme ‘Mission Water’.
• 2017: ‘Youth Empowered’ is established. An innovative training programmed aiming at providing the opportunity to young Cypriots aged 18-30 to find employment and go after their dreams.
• 2018: A truly a truly emblematic environmental programme for Cyprus is launched, ‘Zero Waste Beach’.
• 2020: The company is renamed Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus
• 2021: Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) awards the three factories of Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus with the highest certifications in responsible water management.

Supporting society

Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus is not just about business. Over time it has strengthened vulnerable groups by supporting NGO and organised groups initiatives. It has been cooperating for decades with the Cyprus Red Cross, the Anti-Cancer Association, the Institute of Neurology and Genetics, the Margarita Liasidou foundation, the Association for the Prevention and Handling of Violence. It also comes to the aid of other associations seeking its support.

During 2020, in the wake of unprecedented pandemic conditions, Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus supplied free products for medical and nursing staff as well as patients in public hospitals.

It also supported the General Health System by donating medical equipment for the Nicosia General Hospital, as part of a national effort to strengthen the system in dealing with the pandemic.

To every call for help, the company responds without delay, particularly emergency assistance and crisis incidents, such as the recent deadly Arakapas fire. It provided products to the fire stricken, but also the fire service, coordinating with Civil Defence and the Red Cross.

Sports sponsors

The Coca-Cola sponsorship has grown to be an integral part of Cyprus football history. The company has been supporting the football cup event for 60 years now.
Promoting the positive side of football with sports ideals messages, the Coca-Cola sponsorship is the longest in European football. Over time, its name has become part and parcel of Cyprus football, supporting the sport in every possible way.
After all, it is the ultimate football soft drink internationally, with a rich heritage and presence during great football moments across the world.

For a viable future

Corporate social responsibility and viability are consistent with every aspect Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus business activity.

The company develops in a way that achieves a positive contribution to society and the social environment hosting it.
The targets set are consistently higher, aiming at further improvement, as it records continuous progress on its Viable Environment Development commitments set by Coca-Cola HBC with a 2025 timeframe.

At a local level, social contribution programmes are selected based on a consistent and focused long term strategy.
In Cyprus the company centers on youth development, environmental protection, coming to the aid of vulnerable groups and emergency assistance.

Πρόγραμμα #YouthEmpowered. The innovative #YouthEmpowered programme was launched in 2017 with the goal of strengthening οpportunities for unemployed youth aged 18-30.
The Programme is free, in the framework of Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus corporate social responsibility policy and has ran successfully for three years, during which two training programmes with physical presence were implemented in Nicosia and Limassol. A digital training also took place, adapting to the 2021 pandemic conditions.

More than 3 thousand youths have taken part, taking in the necessary knowledge, skills and networking opportunities that strengthened their professional targets, aimed at successful market placement.
Τwenty strategic partners participated in the programme, including companies, bodies and organisation from a wide range of economy sectors. Through their contribution, a dynamic and effective network of people and contacts was built, making up the mentors of the young generation of Cyprus.
The programme results were astounding, as it has already provided participants employment opportunities or internships at major organisations and corporations in Cyprus.

«Αποστολή Νερό». The company has been working for the past seven years with the international organisation Global Water Partnership Mediterranean (GWP-Med) for the implementation of the ‘Mission Water’ programme, a venture that will benefit Cyprus for many years to come, by saving 5,840,000 litres of water annually.
The programme, funded by the Coca-Cola foundation promotes more effective water management through adopting alternative sources of water, such as rainwater or gray water, aimed at covering secondary uses such as the irrigation of green areas.
It’s also geared towards public opinion awareness on responsible water management. What is notable is that the programme saw the implementation of 19 works of national importance, the installation and restoration of 16 gray water collection systems at schools and grounds, the training of thirty technicians and the education of 280 teachers. 83,621 people in Cyprus benefitted.

«ZeroWasteBeach». In cooperation with the AKTI Research and Studies, Coca-Cola HBC Cyprus launched the innovative programme Zero Waste Beach in 2018, aimed at mobilizing citizens and all relevant bodies in fighting maritime plastic pollution.
Τhrough a number of actions and creating infrastructure, the company’s goal is contribute towards reducing the amount of waste pollution the maritime and coastal areas of Cyprus.

The results of the programme are truly impressive and indicative of the need to take even tougher action at facing this global problem.
One thousand 608 tonnes of recyclable materials, that would otherwise end up in dumping grounds, were collected, beaches were cleaned 33 times, the seabed was cleaned 13 times and local authorities were encouraged to adopt more viable methods of waste management.
One thousand 229 volunteers, 18 local authorities and 44 relevant bodies were mobilised in forging a unique network, a model for other countries, the ‘Responsible Coastal Businesses’ network, with 204 members today.