Rumours of a possible demerger of Coca-Cola Amatil’s SPC Ardmona business have been quashed today.

Amatil yesterday advised of a restructure to their food and services division, creating a new unit to incorporate its bottled springwater supply, vending machines, and café businesses in a bid to reduce operating costs, improve customer service and boost sales. The new “At Work” division will have a combined customer base of over 150,000 and will see a change in the financial reporting of segments – transferring the groups in the “At Work” division from ‘food and services’ to ‘beverages’.

The restructure will not impact their cornerstone food and services business – SPC Ardmona.

Not for sale

Fruit and vegetable processor SPC was acquired by CCA in 2005 as part of their diversification plans. A severe drought has taken a toll on the processor’s domestic operations since, although Amatil reported “good volume growth” at their latest trading update.

The SPC division gives them strong brands that can capitalise on the health and wellness trend in the future and, as a result, Coke’s bottler in Australia sees no reason to part with it. Amatil told the Australian Financial Review that a sale of Ardmona was “not even remotely on the agenda”, effectively canning any talk of a demerger in the wake of the restructure announced yesterday.

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