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Bottlers Nepal, distributors talks make no headway
Talks between Bottlers Nepal (Tarai), the producer of Coca-Cola, and its agitating distributors failed to reach any conclusion on Saturday.Pradeep Menyangbo
Talks between Bottlers Nepal (Tarai), the producer of Coca-Cola, and its agitating distributors failed to reach any conclusion on Saturday.
Distributors of the iconic soft drink, who have come together under the Beverage Distributors Society, have stopped distributing the company’s products since July 30 to press their demand that new distributors should not be appointed without its consent and that distribution areas should not be swapped between them.
Presenting a five-point demand, the society has also demanded that the renewal period of their licences be increased to three years from one year. The distributors have also asked the company to hike their commission.
About 60 distributors spread from Hetauda to Mechi have stopped distributing the popular soft drink, resulting in losses of Rs60 million to the company.
As the distributors have stopped distribution of the company’s beverage products for the last two weeks, the company assigned Country Sales Manager Rajani Sharma, Regional Sales Manager Hari Sharma and Sales Manager overseeing Koshi and Mechi Deepak Acharya to conducts talks with them. The society’s President Arun Kumar Dutta said that the company’s
talks team refused to entertain any of their demands. “They came and we held talks for two weeks in Biratnagar. But the talks didn’t yield any result,” he said.
Sales Manager Deepak Acharya refused to comment. “The company has an information desk, and you can ask for the necessary information from there,” he said.
The society has said that it will continue to mount pressure on the company to get its demands fulfilled. It also said that the stocks that have been sitting in their warehouses for the last two weeks would be distributed by Monday.