Kathmandu, April 15:

World’s leading beverage major Coca Cola’s troubles in Nepal appears to be unending.

While the company’s sole franchise in the country, Bottlers’ Nepal Ltd managed to restart the manufacturing process in its two plants after a closure of more than two months, the volatile labour situation continues to threaten the smooth functioning of the company.

However, this time it is the Department of Food and Quality Control, Nepal that has rapped the beverage maker for allowing expired 500 ml and 1.5 litre PET bottles to be circulated in the market. The department has reportedly directed BNL to withdraw these bottles from the market at the earliest.

For over a week now, the company is engaged in a rigorous exercise of collecting these PET bottles from various outlets across the country and having them drained at its Balaju factory.

This is likely to negatively impact on the sale and marketing of the product as nearly 12,000 bottles are expected to be lifted back from the shelves, point out sources.

Jiwan Prava Lama, deputy director general, Department of Food Technology & Quality Control on Sunday confirmed the directive sent to BNL in this regard.

“Not just Coca Cola, any consumer product which doesn’t comply to the standards will be asked to withdraw its products,” she said. She, however, refused to reveal the details of the directive or the time frame given to the company to withdraw the bottles.

“We have to take into consideration that the products have to be fetched from remote areas, which requires time,” she merely added. The final decision on Coke would be taken in a few days time, she informed.

Meanwhile, Coca Cola tacitly confirmed the news that it was engaged in an exercise of recalling expired PET bottles from the market.

“Since the shelf life of PET bottles are only two to three months, we have always been very vigilant that off-take is faster so as to match the shelf life. But disruption in production by the labour force in December, January and February ended up impacting on our distribution network,” explained Jose A Roque, country manager for Coca Cola in Nepal.

The company had resorted to the ‘bold move’ of quickly withdrawing about 800 cases already from the market when it recognised the slip up, he maintained. And the exercise would continue for the next 15 days ‘till we are sure that the consumer is being offered the best quality product.’

The country manager said that from now on the company would become more strict with its policy of ensuring stock rotation with dealers, that is, to first remove the previous stock then provide a replacement. “When we are able to fully implement this concept of turnover selling, our products would be freshest in the market,” pointed out Roque.

Meanwhile, BNL managed to kick off the Nepali New Year on a positive note with its successful event Fanta Fiesta at Tundikhel on Saturday, much to the relief of the event managers and the company staff.

An earlier Coke event on April 6, comprising of an impressive motorcade expected to culminate in a rock concert at Jwalakhel, had been disrupted by a section of the disgruntled labour force.