By Andrew Starke
Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) may have suffered its first fall in interim profits since 2006 and lost some market share to rival Schweppes but the man at the helm looks set to choose his own departure date.
CEO Terry Davis, who will celebrate ten years in the job this November, said the company’s operating performance in the first half had been “solid given the business has had to manage external headwinds, as well as the cycling of a very strong first half result in 2010”.
While there is no official comment from CCA on succession strategy, a business lunch in Sydney today (Aug 10) provided a window into the relationship between Davis and CCA Chairman David Gonski.
The two were questioned on a range of corporate issues with Gonski revealing that Davis had only promised him a five-year tenure when he was appointed in 2001.
Asked if his retirement would become as talked about as that of Shane Warne’s, Davis quipped that he did not have a Twitter account.