How it started
History
Hellenic Bottling Company S.A. (Greek: Ελληνική Εταιρεία Εμφιαλώσεως) was incorporated under the laws of Greece in 1969, with headquarters in Athens. The Coca-Cola Company granted to the company its bottling rights in the country in that same year.
The company merged with the Nigerian Bottling Company, founded by Anastasios George Leventis, in 1981.
In August 2000 Hellenic Bottling Company S.A. acquired Coca-Cola Beverages Ltd, the former European operations of Coca-Cola Amatil, and formed Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company S.A.
In October 2012, the company announced that it was moving its operational headquarters to Switzerland and would switch its main market listing to London. This was a major blow to the Athens stock market, as Coca-Cola Hellenic was its largest listed company by value. Reasons for the move included better access to financing and a move away from crisis ridden Greece, which had prompted ratings agencies to downgrade its credit over the summer to three notches above "junk" level.
In April 2013, the company changed its name from Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company to Coca-Cola HBC AG and its domicile from Greece to Switzerland. On 29 April 2013 Coca-Cola HBC AG, now a Swiss holding company, was admitted to the London Stock Exchange’s main market.
From Wikipedia’s article on Coca-Cola HBC, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2