Coca Cola India has joined hands with the Indian School of Business to set up a retail academy. The academy will offer a six-month programme to train mid-level professionals in retail management.

It will also conduct retail research and online training as well. The academy will be governed by a council comprising retail practitioners and academicians.

“The initiative is mainly to bring about a well-rounded retail management training programme to contribute towards the quality of future retail managers,” said Ahmet Bozer, group president, Eurasia and Africa, Coca Cola.

The strategic retail management programme hopes to induct at least 50 students in this first year. The fee for this would be Rs 5 lakh. The eligibility for the course is however minimum four years of work experience. “We may also be able to absorb students from the school once they are through the course,” said Atul Singh, president and CEO, Coca Cola India and South west Asia.

“The retail sector in India is undergoing a rapid transformation and the next phase of growth will require well-trained professionals. ISB will provide them cutting-edge pedagogy that will help them to drive the capability of retail sector and benchmarking them globally,” said Ajit Rangnekar, dean, ISB.

Speaking about the impact of the rising input costs, Bozer said the beverage maker is monitoring its impact and will take an appropriate action in the near future. “We have a very large manufacturing base in India and any fluctuations will create an impact. We will look at opportunities to minimise the impact as and when required,” he said.

The company is also looking at scaling up its pilot project and increasing the production of mangoes and oranges with farmers across the country. Right now, the production is at 6 tonnes per annum and it would increase up to 18 tonnes per annum, soon, an official said.