Who am I: Determined, a man of results, breathless for tasks, but not very patient. Always looking a step further. I know how to acknowledge gratitude for both way and effort, because not everything has a result, and it is important to me to empower the people who work with me.
Roots: Dad came from an ultra-Orthodox family in Hungary. When World War II broke out Grandpa was in Siberia and Grandma was sent to Auschwitz, survived the death march and I grew up on the stories of walking barefoot in the snow. After the war, Grandpa and Grandma met in Germany, got married, had two children, and immigrated to Israel when Dad was six months old. They came to “Kfar Gvirol”, today Rehovot, raised chickens and sheep. And at the same time Grandpa continued to produce sausages, a specialty he brought from abroad.
My maternal grandparents, who were national religious, came to Israel from Czechoslovakia and Austria after the war, and opened a Jewish food workers’ restaurant on Chen Boulevard in Tel Aviv. To the Far East and closed in. Mother was born in Tel Aviv.
The parents met in Bnei Akiva, when she lived in Givatayim and he in Bnei Brak. Mom was a special education teacher in hard schools, Dad worked for 42 years at Coca-Cola, the founding generation. He was mainly in operations and logistics and managed the transport department.
My girls: We are four children, and when I turned 4 we left Bnei Brak for Rishon Lezion. In all my 12 years in school I studied religious education, from seventh to ninth grade I studied in a yeshiva, and at about the age of 16 I switched to state-religious education, and studied biology and chemistry, because it interested me more than physics. I played the organ for six years and apart from “Little Jonathan” I know nothing. I swam in swimming groups.
I spent all my childhood vacations in Coca-Cola, in all sorts of stressful jobs that would be given to children, I worked in the production line and emptied garbage. In my office framed the first pay slip I got at age 16. I grew up into it, and as a small child I would come to work with Dad and travel the country with the movers.
Sophie: My wife, a special education teacher in a regular school, we met 30 years ago. I have a very supportive home over the years in my career and my way, and I probably could not have done it without her. She is an amazing mother and a good friend for life. We have two children and we live in Ness Ziona.
Career: After a service in Givati, an officers’ course and two years at YKL (Lebanon Liaison Unit), including a year as head of Gabi Ashkenazi’s bureau, I was released and thought of passing the time and making money in Israel or abroad. It was the most available and when they were looking for a salesman I offered myself and started working in the field. Dad worked at the company at the time, but we did not meet.
Since ’95 I have been in the main company, and this is my tenth position in the company. I was a forklift, I worked in a warehouse, I was a sales promoter, sales manager, I ran an operating branch of the company in Hod Hasharon, I was responsible for the private and organized market, VP of sales for nine years, five years CEO of sales and distribution and I start my second year as CEO. L. When I told my father, who was already retired, that I had been selected for the job, the words came out of his mouth. This is not surprising. We are a very emotional family.
stability: The challenges here do not end there. I switched a lot of roles along the way and the group and company also evolved into new areas: squeezed juices, beer and terra. In today’s world, it is precisely experience, professionalism and specialization that have weight. In order to grow and develop, while studying, I studied a bachelor’s degree in business administration at the expense of the company in evening studies and participated in the “Maoz” program. I certainly had outside suggestions over the years, but I believed in my ability to move forward and make an impact. Today we get tired and wear out fast, I’m probably from a different generation, and I’m not alone. There are a lot of wonderful and committed people who have been working in the company for decades and go a long way together, and I may be the first to make it all the way down, but the organization gives opportunities.
The main company: I am responsible for all the group’s activities in Israel, production of Coca-Cola, Prigat, Neviot, Terra, everything that is produced in the country, and Restarto, which markets imported deli products. At the end of the previous year, we changed the management structure of the group to a unified structure according to arrays. We have built a unified marketing system for the beverage, alcohol and dairy divisions and an operational system that is responsible for the entire process, from production to marketing. It’s a long move that comes to adapt the company to the challenges of the future.
The corona was a particular trigger for the timing of the changes, but it was chosen because it was at the right point for society, so it’s good that we did not wait with it for the end of the epidemic, who knows when it will happen, because we are in a world of uncertainty. All of this was not accompanied by layoffs or streamlining, but rather an emphasis on changes in managerial aspects.
Corona: In 2020, there was a significant decrease in sales because the market for restaurants, cinemas, and places of entertainment was closed and there was no increase in the marketing chains. About 80% of our sales are in the entertainment market and the organized market. Slowly we started to recover, but everyone who goes to the movies sees that it is not like before and the restaurants have not yet recovered. Part of my view of the epidemic is in maintaining the health of workers. We adhere to capsules to maintain business continuity and production.
Power and rapture: This image is wrong. We are not a powerful company, but a service company, reach customers and consumers with courtesy and service and allow retailers to contact us always. We wrap our employees warmly, with high management quality, because we care about them. We give scholarships to employees’ children, vacationers and a study fund. We work in very significant areas: beverages, milk and alcohol and we have amazing competitors, companies that compete well and the competition is fierce. We try to bring solutions, brands and excitement.
Import reform: Imports have always been here. We are a manufacturer that produces in Eretz Israel, most of our factories in the periphery, and we believe in Israeli industry and the Israeli worker. I am not threatened by imports, but a competitor. I’m not afraid because there is always competition. We have never blocked competition, not even from parallel imports, only that the products are legal and not smuggled. I am not in a world of alertness or complacency, but of competition.
Raising prices: I do not intend to comment on the subject, except for the fact that the one who raised the price of the drinks is the government. The new deposit law: entered into force on 1 December. What is sad is that in the end citizens, industrialists and food chains did not have time to prepare for the government’s decision to extend the law to large bottles as well. The regulator wants the here and now, with a broad and forward-looking lack of attention, but only too fast. The cages are gone and the machines that are supposed to arrive are gone. The preparation time of ten months is short at the world level, because such a move is accompanied by information and education.
Exactly the same thing happened in the tax on sugary drinks. There is a great lack of dialogue between government and industry, a lack of learning from the world and a little patience. It is possible to achieve recycling in other ways besides imposing a tax on the bottles.
Tax on sugary drinks: The thing in my opinion is the connection between sugary drinks and diet drinks, which is very problematic, both for diabetics and for people who consume reduced-sugar drinks or diet for other reasons. This is puzzling, because these products were not marked with red stickers, while products that were marked with red like chocolate and delicacies were not musso. I find no logical reason to test products that are not marked with a red sticker. You ask if they were looking for us? In your next section you should ask this question to the person who made the decision. The frustration is the unwillingness to listen even before the discussion and less whether they accepted or did not accept our opinion.
Prof. Ardon Rubinstein: The Honorable Professor was pressured into a discussion in the Finance Committee, and exploited his mistake cynically. He was legally registered in advance, wore the orange ribbon, and the committee chairman’s lists show who he represents. He is a person with two hearing aids and did not understand what was being said. Very much in the field of obesity and diabetes, and clearly said that taxation would severely hurt people who suffer from them.
Direct sales site: We’re studying the subject, but we still have no plans ahead.
leisure: Playing doubles tennis when I have time, in the last year I have had less, canceled more than I played, and I run, especially on weekends.
Looking to the future: I just started the role, and I see myself here, in the organization, to continue to be a leading company and face the challenges along the way, and to grow the principals and managers who work with me.
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