Social pillar

• Our employees
• Employee satisfaction, remuneration and safety
• Diversity and inclusion
• Cooperation with communities
• Certification and auditing

In the social sphere, 2025 was a record-breaking year in several areas. We have achieved an all-time high in employee satisfaction, and we have increased our employees’ salaries by an average of 5.6%. We have also invested a record amount in employee benefits. Through the Youth Empowered educational programme, we have supported the largest number of young people in our history and have transformed it into a new 2.0 model, which divides the programme into three categories of intensity.

Our people

31 people were employed on a part-time basis (converted to FTE). We employed 43 people under agreements for the performance of work or work activities.

In 2025, we took on 203 employees, whilst 154 employees left the Company*. Staff turnover reached 16 %.

* Here we report specific arrivals and departures, rather than average adjusted figures as in previous statistics.

Cooperation and commitment

The key to our success is our dedicated team and cross-departmental collaboration. In 2025, we also continued with our internal survey Collaboration for Impact, in which employees assess collaboration between teams using the Net Promoter Score (NPS). The teams follow up on the findings and suggestions gathered with action plans, which help us to streamline cross-departmental collaboration.

We have been monitoring staff satisfaction and engagement over the long term. In the year under review, we achieved a record 89% in the engagement index. The figure has therefore risen by one percentage point year-on-year, marking the best result since records began. Satisfaction and engagement have been rising for the fourth year running. We value the honest feedback of our employees and will continually work on areas where they have shown us room for improvement.

The survey revealed growth in several key areas: our employees’ pride in working for our Company rose by 3 per cent, and the score for the key question – whether we are willing to help one another even beyond the scope of our job duties – also increased by 1 per cent; here, we achieved a score of 93 per cent. 88% of us would recommend the company as a good employer, and confidence in the key Oxygen project, which streamlines our processes, has risen by 3%.

The average annual amount of unscheduled overtime was 8 hours.

Fair pay and career progression

In the year under review, we increased wages by an average of 5.6 %. Once again, the most popular benefits included a pension contribution, a drinks scheme, a staff canteen, language courses and an employee share scheme, under which the Company matches monthly share purchases up to 3 per cent of salary. 45 per cent of employees already have the option to work from home. The recommended model combines two days of working from home with three days in the office to foster teamwork.
 In the year under review, we spent CZK 31.9 million on employee benefits, which is CZK 2.5 million more than in 2024.

In total, we delivered 17,042 hours of training and educational activities during the year under review. We provide selected employees with funding for their studies and the opportunity to obtain CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) financial certification, as well as retraining for drivers wishing to upgrade from category B to category C. We also support employees in their language studies. The monthly marathon of training sessions, Learn Fest, was back again in 2025.

We assess staff performance using our internal system, Performance for Growth. Under this system, employees and their line managers assess the employee’s performance every six months, and this assessment determines the variable component of their pay. 

Our HR systems also link this goal-setting process to ongoing feedback (from colleagues, subordinates or project teams) and individual development plans. These help employees either to develop in their current role or to prepare for a new position. 

Safety first

The Behaviour-Based Safety (BBS) programme is our tool for preventing accidents. Staff use it to report potentially dangerous situations, which we then investigate and assess. It is based on a simple principle: spotting risks in good time to prevent accidents. In 2025, we received 872 suggestions for this programme. Of the 359 near-misses reported, we managed to successfully resolve 308 in the same year. During the year under review, we recorded only 3 accidents resulting in incapacity for work.

Occupational safety training is mandatory for all new recruits on their first day of work and is regularly renewed. In addition, we regularly organise Health and Safety Week and Health Days, which provide free health screenings, workshops and training to employees. A new initiative in 2025 was a follow-up fire safety day for staff, during which they were able to practise extinguishing a real fire.

Dialogue with staff

Employees are represented by the works council, which acts in the place of a trade union. Members are elected for a three-year term – in the Czech Republic, the council has 15 representatives, and in Slovakia 5, which represents 2.1 per cent of staff. The Board is organised at the European group level and meets with the Company’s management every month. It has its own budget to support selected activities.

Diversity and inclusion

We continued to build on diversity in 2025 as well. We employed people of 19 nationalities. The average age of our staff was 40. 19% were employees aged under 30, 62% were in the 30–50 age group and 19% were over 50.

We are constantly working to achieve a balance between the representation of women and men in management. In 2025, we achieved a 50% share of women in senior management in the Czech Republic and Slovakia – Senior Leadership Team – representation 5 : 5. When the project role and the CEO are included, the ratio is 7 : 5 in favour of men. 

The overall proportion of women in management (job grade 10+) stood at 37% in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In 2025, the gender pay gap shifted by 10 per cent in women’s favour.

Women in leadership has been a topic we’ve addressed at several conferences, and thanks to the #WomenOfCCHBC communications campaign, we were awarded the TOP Responsible Company – Communications for Sustainability award.

The traditional D&I Week , focusing on diversity and inclusion, was a key feature of our internal communications. We reiterated our zero-tolerance policy towards any form of discrimination – whether on the grounds of age, health, gender, sexual orientation, race, religion or other protected characteristics. Our equality policy is consistently applied when recruiting new colleagues.

In 2025, we employed 5 employees with disabilities. That is 0.5% of staff. We have job opportunities for people with physical disabilities, for example in our customer service centre, where it is also possible to work entirely from home.

Special Olympics and our external diversity partners

The local branch of Special Olympics became a key partner in 2025. In the Czech Republic, we supported sporting events by encouraging people to stay hydrated, setting up activity zones with attractions, and through corporate volunteering. 

We were honoured that Veronika Koníčková, director of the local branch of Special Olympics, presented our partnership at the conference organised by the Association for Social Responsibility.

Youth Empowered 2.0

Our flagship community project aimed at educating young people entering the labour market has seen record participation. In total, 6,955 young people in the Czech Republic and Slovakia took part in the training sessions in 2025. Furthermore, the project has been updated, and in its 2.0 version it divides activities into three levels of involvement. A total of 36,099 people have already been through the project.

Level 1 – Engage

The two-hour training sessions mainly took the form of tours of our production plant, supplemented by business presentations about our Company. The excursions are attended by secondary school and university students. Another feature of this stage was the lectures given by our managers at partner universities. This range of activities is complemented by partner events, such as Stretech at the Czech Technical University.

Level 2 – get involved

At the second level, we organise training modules lasting longer than 6 hours in collaboration with partner organisations. In 2026, for example, this included the ‘Sustainability Management’ module at the Honors Academy and the BIP educational module at the Czech University of Life Sciences on the same topic. This level also includes collaboration with JA Czech, where secondary school pupils develop their entrepreneurial skills as part of the Student Company of the Year project. Mentoring these companies is a popular part of our corporate volunteering programme. The educational activities of the Jedlička Institute Foundation also fall within this category.

Level 3 – to inspire 

The final level of our work with young talent is to employ them within our value chain. We are delighted to have organised a careers day in 2025 in collaboration with our clients Albert and Tesco, thereby offering job vacancies to young people from Ukraine as part of the Cesty programme organised by JA Czech.

We are delighted that our partners view the Youth Empowered programme as an integral part of the education system; it is partly thanks to this that we were invited to an international workshop on the future of education at Charles University. In 2025, we received an award from the University of Economics, Prague, in recognition of our long-standing collaboration within the programme.

We provide aid wherever it is needed

In the year under review, we donated more than 823 thousand litres of drinks to food banks. Their book value was CZK 14.5 million, whilst their market value was three times higher. Our long-standing partnership with food banks enables us to help people in need whilst minimising food waste.

In 2025, we donated more than 26,000 litres of drinks to the fire service.

Drinking regime in partner health facilities

Corporate volunteering 

In 2025, 106 employees took part in corporate volunteering during working hours, representing 11.3%. They clocked up 943 hours of voluntary work. In Slovakia, for example, our colleagues took part in a collection of supplies organised by the Pontis Foundation, providing hygiene products to those in need. This initiative was accompanied by our Company’s participation in the Initiative for Menstrual Dignity, which is organised in Slovakia by Tesco. Colleagues in Slovakia also, as is traditional, helped to clean up public spaces. In the Czech Republic, we also supported the Světlušky events, amongst other things. As part of a volunteering day, colleagues from Coca-Cola Czech Republic made bird boxes for our wetland. Under the supervision of the Czech Ornithological Society, they managed to position them in such a way that all of them are now occupied by birds.

The internal grant scheme also continued, under which staff can apply for drinks for community events that they organise themselves in their spare time. The programme also supports colleagues’ weddings or their children’s school-leaving balls. In total, over 3,000 people took part in the events supported in this way.

A Coca-Cola lorry rang in Christmas for Red Cross volunteers

Get moving for a good cause

Golden DOBROGOLY

We support sport

Coca-Cola and charity cafés

We have traditionally supplied our products to charity cafés. These include Světluška’s Kavárna potmě [Café in the Dark], where the staff are people with visual impairments. We are deeply honoured that our Café Vergnano has been chosen as the official coffee of Kavárna potmě. Before the start of this mobile café’s season, the blind café staff completed a professional training course run by our Coffee Ambassador.

We also continued to support the TA Café at the Jedlička Institute by providing drinks. We donated the branded parasol to a complex run by the Luisa Association, which provides social rehabilitation services.

We want to be a good neighbour

In 2025, we remained in contact with the leadership of the Prague 14 district through our representation on the Commission for Sustainable Development and Strategic Planning. Once again, the most frequently discussed issues here were those relating to a common sustainability strategy. We also co-organise community events with Prague 14 Cultural. These include, for example, a march through Prague 14, during which residents can visit the premises of our production plant. In 2025, this field trip took place on the grounds of our wetland.

We also took part in the celebrations here to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. We took part in the ceremonial unveiling of the mural on the ‘Aviators’ Steps’, and our drinks were also on offer at the military equipment exhibition, where visitors could symbolically exchange our drinks for ‘beer’. We were thus recalling scenes from the liberation of Plzeň at the end of the Second World War, which marked the first time Coca-Cola was brought to our country. We rounded off the day’s celebrations with a screening of the film about pilots, ‘Good Old Czechs’.

Certification, audits and summary

In 2025, we donated over EUR 704,000 (over CZK 17.6 million) to charitable and community causes in the Czech Republic. In Slovakia, the figure was over EUR 61,000 (over CZK 1.5 million). All of this includes material donations and contributions to community projects focused on the environment.

Relevant social certifications and audits:

• ISO 45001 – Occupational health and safety management