Claude Nielsen is retiring as CEO of Birmingham’s Coca-Cola Bottling Company United and John Sherman, senior vice president and chief commercial officer, has been named as his replacement, effective today.

Nielsen, who turned 65 in February, has led the company since 1991. His retirement caps a 37-year career that grew the Birmingham business into the nation’s largest private Coca-Cola bottler.

After two years of mapping out a succession plan, Nielsen said he is placing the reins in good hands.

“I’m very excited to announce that our board of directors elected John Sherman to succeed me as CEO of Coca-Cola United effective April 26,” Nielsen said. “I’ve just got so much confidence in our future. I’ve worked with John for 28 years. I know him. I know what kind of operator he is. I know what kind of leader he is. I know the principles by which he lives and operates.”

Claude Nielsen retires as CEO of Birmingham’s Coca-Cola United, John Sherman named successor from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

For Sherman, the move to the top of the company is the zenith of a career that began with Coke as a part-time job in 1977.

“I like to say I’m just a kid from Augusta, Georgia,” Sherman said. “I left Augusta to go to Atlanta to play football at Georgia Tech. After two years I realized that I was not only small, but I was also slow and I needed a job to pay for school.

“So I literally walked across the downtown connector in Atlanta from the Tech campus to the Atlanta Coca-Cola Bottling Company and interviewed for a part-time job, which I was successful, thank goodness,” he said. “That’s how my career started in 1977 as a part-time night computer room operator. That’s how this journey started for me.”

Coca-Cola Bottling Company United in Birmingham is the nation’s largest private bottler of Coke products. (Coca-Cola Company)

After working at different Coca-Cola facilities in Atlanta for a decade, Sherman got his first taste of Alabama.

“In 1988, I had the chance to move to Anniston, Alabama, to run the six facilities in the eastern part of Alabama that were owned by the Coca-Cola Company at that time,” Sherman said. “I was there for two years and that was when I became acquainted with Coca-Cola United and, in particular, Claude Nielsen.”

Nielsen hired Sherman two years later to work for Coca-Cola United in a market Sherman knew a bit about.

“In 1990 he offered me a job to be a manager in Augusta, Georgia, which wasn’t really that difficult since it was my home,” he said. “So I started with Coca-Cola United in 1990 in Augusta, Georgia, and three short years later, I ended up in Birmingham and my wife and family have lived here ever since 1993, so it’s been a great journey.”

When Coca-Cola United acquired the east Alabama operations from Coca-Cola Company in 2014, Sherman once again worked with many people he knew when he was there in 1988. With the acquisition of the Atlanta area bottling operations for Coca-Cola set to close next year, Sherman once again is seeing some familiar faces from his past.

“I made an early site visit there a month ago and ran into a number of people I knew back in those days,” he said.

The leadership change comes in the middle of Coca-Cola United’s massive expansion throughout the Southeast as the Coca-Cola Company looks to consolidate the number of bottlers of its soft drink line.

With announced acquisitions, Birmingham’s Coca-Cola Bottling Company United will have 8,500 employees and operations in seven Southeastern states. (Amy Sparks/Coca-Cola Company)

Coca-Cola United has been tapped as one of the regional bottlers and distributors going forward. That has driven the acquisitions of bottlers in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and even into Georgia’s Atlanta metro area where Coca-Cola is based.

When the announced deals are done, Coca-Cola United will have a footprint touching seven Southeastern states and swell to 8,500 employees. Add to that the fact the company is the caretaker of one of the biggest, most beloved brands in the world in the place where that brand was born and it could be a daunting task for any new leader.

But Sherman said the management team and the employees at Coca-Cola United bolster his sureness.

“That’s what gives me such a great deal of not only confidence, but also comfort in taking on this big responsibility,” he said. “This bottling company, Coca-Cola United, is so admired in this industry and I am privileged to be part of it.”

Nielsen has the same level of confidence in Sherman.

“I have never been as optimistic and as excited about the future of our business as I am today,” he said. And that is at the conclusion of 37 years in the business, so I’ve got a fairly extensive perspective on the matter.”

As for Nielsen, the Evergreen native said he will keep his leadership seat on the company’s board of directors but also plans to take on a new role in his retirement.

“I will remain as chairman,” he said. “I will also, I think, adopt another title if the board will approve it. It’s going to be ‘head cheerleader’ because I will be the biggest cheerleader and advocate this management team has.”