In the late 2000s, Coca-Cola’s operations in Germany underwent a massive consolidation. Eight independent bottlers were merged into a single organization, creating one of the largest and most complex beverage operations in Europe.

The consolidation created scale; however exposed fragmentation. Systems, reporting practices and decision-making norms varied widely across regions and functions. At the same time, consumer behavior shifted rapidly as digital channels reshaped how people discovered, evaluated and purchased products.

The challenge wasn’t just operational efficiency. It was relevancy and the design of a performance culture following consolidation and digital disruption.

Following consolidation, Coca-Cola Germany was responsible for:

• More than half a million customers
• Over 80 products and 500 SKUs
• 10,000 employees across seven sales regions and 60 locations

Hundreds of people across the organization were producing reports, often manually, often in Excel, and often with different assumptions and definitions. Leadership spent more time reconciling numbers than improving outcomes.

At the same time, consumer power was shifting. Shoppers now had real-time access to information, price comparisons and alternatives. To stay competitive, Coca-Cola Germany needed a way to understand customers better, act faster and align decisions across the enterprise.

Rather than continue to optimize reporting in silos, leadership made a more fundamental decision to reset how performance was measured, shared and acted upon across the organization.

Coca-Cola Germany partnered with Salient to establish a single, shared foundation for commercial performance that supported:

• Self-sufficient decision-making at every level
• Consistent definitions of value and performance
• Transparency from the frontline to the executive team
• Continuous improvement embedded into daily work

The move from spreadsheet-driven reporting marked a turning point. Push reports and static files were replaced with a self-service model that allowed employees to explore performance, ask better questions and understand impact in the moment.

This wasn’t about turning everyone into analysts. It was about making performance visible and actionable for each role.

Sales teams, managers and executives all worked from the same foundation eliminating debates about numbers and refocusing conversations on outcomes.

With a unified view of performance in place, Coca-Cola Germany turned its focus outward toward customers and consumers.

By connecting execution data, customer hierarchies and demographic context, teams could:

• Monitor execution quality at the outlet level
• Understand regional and neighborhood differences
• Track performance of new product launches
• Identify opportunities to add value beyond price

The organization could now see each outlet as a complete picture instead of simply a transaction and continuously refine how it served both customers and consumers.

After implementing this enterprise-wide performance model:

• Coca-Cola Germany became the #1 value-adding FMCG company in Germany
• Customer relationships strengthened as conversations shifted from price to value
• Market share and volume reached their highest levels, despite category pressure
• Profitability improved alongside growth

Customers recognized the difference as well.

For Coca-Cola European Partners in Germany, success didn’t come from consolidation alone. It came from designing a system where:

• Everyone works from the same truth
• Decisions are made close to the market
• Accountability is clear
• Improvement never stops

That’s how performance moves, even in the most complex environments.