Coca-Cola, Nokia and Delhaize choose Greece for human resource skills
It emerged on Tuesday that three major multinational groups, The Coca-Cola Company, Nokia Solutions & Networks (NSN) and Delhaize, have decided to add to their investments in Greece and create jobs just when the country needs it most.
Although the three groups are active in very different sectors, all three investments have a common feature in that they require highly skilled human resources from the information and communications technology (ICT) and marketing sectors for the development of products and services of high added value.
The Coca-Cola Company is planning to establish a Consumer Interaction Center in Athens. The 1-million-euro investment is expected to create between 100 and 150 jobs. It is due to start operating in early 2014 and will be fully developed in 2015 to cover 23 countries in Central and Southern Europe. The Consumer Interaction Center will develop all of the group’s social networking applications and will employ marketing officials and ICT experts, among others. Coca-Cola Chairman Muhtar Kent informed Prime Minister Antonis Samaras of the company’s decision in a letter following a meeting in September between the two men in New York. Greece was chosen for the Greeks’ know-how and language skills.
NSN officially announced on Tuesday its intention to expand its software center in Attica, which creates telecommunications solutions for the global market. The new NSN investment will create an additional 150 jobs, taking the number of engineers employed at the center at Kato Kifissia, northern Athens, to over 580 and creating one of the multinational company’s biggest software centers around the world. The new unit was inaugurated yesterday by the ministers of development, Costis Hatzidakis, and labor, Yiannis Vroutsis.
Delhaize announced on Tuesday it is creating a Center of Excellence in Greece, one of only two in the world. The Belgian group, which owns Greece’s AB Vassilopoulos supermarket chain, has already launched operations at the center in Gerakas, eastern Attica, having hired 30 people from the ICT sector to develop specialized software solutions such as the SAP Retail system and e-commerce intranet. Delhaize chose Greece as it was the first country where it implemented SAP Retail and adjustment proved rapid.
