José Antonio Echeverría of Coca-Cola EP ranks No. 1 in the Top 28 Supply Chain Executives Europe

José Antonio Echeverría, Supply Chain Officer at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), has secured the number 1 spot in the 2025 edition of the Top 28 Supply Chain Executives Europe ranking, climbing from 7^th place in the 2024 list. Under his leadership, CCEP’s supply chain has expanded into new markets, invested in growth and adopted advanced technologies to improve operations and customer service.

Supply Chain Media launched the ranking of the Top 28 Supply Chain Executives Europe in 2015 to provide an overview of which European supply chain leaders are most successful in their journey and as a source of inspiration. To qualify for this ranking, the executives must be based in Europe and responsible for global supply chains at European companies, or for Europe at non-European companies, with an annual turnover of at least €5 billion.

For this 11^th edition of the Top 28, Supply Chain Media and IG&H Consulting shortlisted 60 individuals from a longlist of 180 supply chain executives in Europe. The Top 28 is based on realised financial performance with an emphasis on Return On Capital Employed (30%), personal functional responsibility in the supply chain and span of control (30%), personal visibility (20%) and peer votes (20%).

This year’s winner

José Antonio Echeverría leads the end-to-end supply chain and customer service operations of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, which has 90 production sites across 31 markets. Since joining the Coca-Cola organisation in 2005, he has held several senior roles, including Vice President of Strategy and Transformational Projects for the Iberia Business Unit, and Vice President of Strategy and Coordination for Supply Chain across CCEP.

Echeverría has delivered very solid financial results in recent years, with many innovations. He is also highly visible to colleagues, among other things through articles on the company website. Echeverría actively focuses on improving disability inclusion for the 33,000 CCEP colleagues and considers this an essential part of the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) strategy. He is committed to delivering a superior customer experience while expanding the company’s sustainable and diverse portfolio of brands and packaging solutions.

With Echeverría at the helm, CCEP’s supply chain has expanded into new markets like Australia (investing $75 million in a new canning line at the Queensland site) and the Philippines (a new manufacturing plant in Tarlac City), supported by a significant annual investment programme aligned with the company’s growth strategy. In that context, CCEP announced a €150 million innovation investment in its Grigny site in France in 2025 aimed at making CCEP’s full range of returnable glass bottles locally. These investments have driven the adoption of advanced technologies, including robotics and AI, modernising operations and delivering a better service for 4 million customers.

Expansion and digitalisation

The heightened importance of both expansion and digitalisation is underlined by the Supply Chain Media survey for the annual Top 28 Supply Chain Executives in Europe, in collaboration with IG&H Consulting. Whereas in 2022 sustainability and the scarcity of raw materials were seen as the most important megatrends affecting business in the long term (at 78%), in the 2025 survey this percentage has fallen to just 15 per cent. Instead, digitalisation and technological developments now take the top spot (78%), followed by global market expansion (52%) and geopolitical realignment (41%).

Juggling act

According to 59 per cent of the supply chain executives surveyed, their executive committee also sees business transformation and digitalisation as a top priority. This is closely followed by operational excellence and cost containment at 56 per cent, and customer excellence and portfolio optimisation in 3^th place at 52 per cent. For supply chain executives, it is a real juggling act to balance these often conflicting priorities, with a focus on cash flow being essential to achieve business growth. This often means cutting personnel costs, and reducing – or rather optimising – inventories, which may happen at the expense of customer service. While CCEP reported a slight decline in EBIT, it recently showed an improvement in inventory turnover.

FMCG executives top the list

The four highest-ranked supply chain executives this year all work for fast-moving consumer goods manufacturers. The second executive on the list is Antoine Vanlaeys of L’Oréal, followed by Graeme Carter of perfume and cosmetics manufacturer Coty. In 4^th place is Willem Uijen, chief supply chain & operations officer at Unilever, who is the highest new entry in this year’s ranking. The fastest climber from No. 26 to No. 8 is Alan Dy from pharmaceutical manufacturer Novartis.

Top 28 of Supply Chain Executives in Europe 2025 (2024)

1 (7) José Antonio Echeverría, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
2 (6) Antoine Vanlaeys, L’Oréal
3 (14) Graeme Carter, Coty
4 (-) Willem Uijen, Unilever
5 (3) Sven Markert, Siemens
6 (2) David Boulanger, Arla Foods
7 (-) Lelwyn D’Souza, Ecolab
8 (25) Alan Dy, Novarti
9 (8) Maria Pia de Caro, Pernod Ricard
10 (-) Volvo Cars, Francesca Gamboni
11 (-) Gisela Linge, Autoliv
12 (-) Vikram Agarwal, Danone
13 (-) Björn Kirchner, Henkel
14 (-) -Silke Maurer, MTU Aero Engines
15 (19) David Cutter, FrieslandCampina
16 (17) Fred Brut, MSD
17 (-) Jean-Loic Galle, Thales
18 (11) Victor Shevtsov, Carlsberg
19 (9) Andrew Finnegan, Novo Nordisk
20 (12) Robert van der Waal, Sandvik
21 (16) Arne Flemming, Bosch
22 (-) Willem Mutsaerts, Givaudan
23 (-) Alexandre Baubert, Schindler Group
24 (22) Jamal Chamariq, Estée Lauder
25 (10) Thorsten Domke, Infineon
26 (-) Paula Davila Martinez, Kenvue
27 (24) Gregor Dudek, Electrolux
28 (26) Roeland Baaijens, Hilti

Hall of Fame

One year after being No. 1 in the Top 28, the winner enters the Supply Chain Movement Hall of Fame. This now contains the following supply chain executives:

• Marc Engel, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Unilever until 2022 (No. 1 in 2017 and 2018)
• Carsten Rasmussen, Chief Operations Officer at Lego Group (2019)
• Dirk Holbach, Corporate SVP and Chief Supply Chain Officer at Henkel (2020)
• Tariq Farooq, SVP Global Supply Chain at Sanofi until 2022 (2021)
• Sami Naffakh, Chief Supply Officer at Reckitt until 2024 (2022)
• Ewan Andrew, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Diageo (2023)
• Magne Setnes, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Heineken (2024)

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