RC Cola Int’l ensures product quality through skills training for employees

MANILA, Philippines - ARC Refreshments Corporation, the licensed bottler of RC Cola in the Philippines, welcomed top executives of COTT/RC Cola International (RCCI) in Clarkfield, Pampanga, recently for a two-day skills training seminar on product quality for its employees.

With the theme “Producing a Great RC product,” the seminar was held at the Holiday Inn Clark and formed part of the company’s commitment to provide hands-on support to all its partners worldwide. The seminar also attracted some of the best production managers and staff of RC Cola’s manufacturing plants in the Philippines, particularly those coming from Luzon.

During the seminar, the participants were given a glimpse of how their counterparts at RC Cola manufacturing plants in the US process softdrinks and other beverages. The importance of adhering to the company’s strict rules on product quality and assurance were also emphasized, with COTT/RCCI executives providing actual case studies on how they were able to help their partners in other countries by sharing industry-best practices and applying key lessons learned.

According to Prem Virmani, senior vice president of COTT/RCCI, who was also the seminar’s facilitator, RC Cola’s success worldwide has always been anchored on having consistent, high-quality products. “We always stress product quality and we try to help our partners achieve that quality by imparting with them the latest technological and quality assurance practices,” says Virmani, who flew in from COTT/RCCI’s corporate headquarters in Columbus, Georgia, USA. Joining Virmani for the seminar are two of his other colleagues from COTT/RCCI, Omar Al-Saigh, director for quality and Krishna Mohan Nooney, director for technical services.

COTT is currently the world’s largest retailer brand of beverages and is considered the market leader in North America. It owns RCCI and markets beverage concentrate in over 60 countries around the world, including the Philippines.

“We are here because we want our partners to be able to keep up with what their competition is doing,” confirms Krishna. “We try to help them address issues based on three key pillars: quality assurance, technical service and continuous improvement.”

To ensure that the quality of RC Cola products produced in every country is of the same quality in terms of taste, mouth feel, and consistency, COTT/RCCI conducts annual quality systems evaluation on a regular basis with its partner organizations throughout the world.

“The seminar we are conducting in the Philippines today actually works two ways,” says Omar. “While we are able to share tried and tested procedures of our operations in the US, we are also able to learn a lot from our counterparts at RC Cola Philippines in terms of what things they are doing differently here that works. The Philippines is now number one in the world and is a very important market for us. We actually sell more RC in the Philippines than in the US,” he quips.

Prior to conducting the seminar in Clark, the executives from COTT/RCCI were given a tour of RC Cola plants in Antipolo and Canlubang. They were also given time to inspect some of RC Cola Philippines’ bottling plants in other parts of the country after the seminar.

“What you have here right now is excellent! When you walk inside the plant, it is as if you are inside a military facility,” beamed Virmani in describing RC Cola’s well-organized bottling plants in the Philippines. He also commended the plant for maintaining its water consumption at a very efficient level. “We would like you to continue doing the excellent job that you are doing right now. On our part, what we will do is bring you the best concentrate you can use to create the best RC Cola products in your market.”

Butch Aves, ARC Refreshments Corporation’s vice president for technical services, who joined the company’s executive vice president and COO, Gerry Garcia, in welcoming guests and participants to the two-day seminar, was likewise pleased, saying, “We’re happy with the results of their evaluation. Right now, our aim is to further decrease water consumption without sacrificing product quality. We will also continue giving our employees technical skills training since this forms part of our continuing effort at RC Cola Philippines to embark on a continuous improvement program pertaining to our quality (in terms of taste and technical qualities of the product), which is eventually geared towards satisfying our customers.”

He adds that the training program also gives them a chance to not just hear from industry experts but also to be informed about how RC Cola bottlers and distributors in other countries are able to adhere to the strict quality standards set in producing a great RC product.