Pokka International, a well-loved household name and one of Singapore’s leading beverage brands, has undergone a major shake up a couple of days ago.
There’s been a massive change in the upper management of the beverage company, which involves local celebrity Vivian Lai’s husband, Alain Ong.
Mr Ong was removed as one of the leaders of the company, according to Shin Min Daily News (SMDN). This was due to an “internal audit” that reshuffled all the top executives of the organisation.
Alongside Mr Ong, several other management-level positions from other departments have been replaced as well.
A letter, sent on 19 Sep to all business partners of Pokka, indicated that Mr Ong is no longer authorised to represent both Pokka International and Pokka Corporation.
According to SMDN’s investigations, 8 company personnel have been suspended during this audit period.
They were instructed to stay away from the company premises unless they obtained permission from the upper management.
Also, none of the suspended employees are believed to come from Japanese management.
Under Mr Ong’s leadership as Pokka’s CEO, Vivian Lai, the 41-year-old Mediacorp actress and host, was appointed as the ambassador of the drink for more than 10 years.
She was reportedly paid $1 million to endorse the beverage back in 2012 — a sum supposedly far too hefty for any veteran Mediacorp artist, as reported by SMDN.
The couple also recently purchased an $8 million 3-storey semi-detached house which was featured on Lian He Wan Bao earlier this April.
No reports thus far have indicated that there’ll be changes to Vivian Lai’s role as brand ambassador role in the near future.
Pokka divulged that they will be channelling their focus on maintaining the company’s operations during this period.
In other words, they probably have not come to a conclusion with regards to the company’s future marketing strategy and any possible changes in celebrity endorsements.
Mr Ong continues to be retained as an employee of Pokka, although his CEO duties have been relieved.
His position has been taken over by Rieko Shofu, the Group CEO of Pokka Corporation Singapore Pte Ltd.
The changes took place in April, so she has been working at the organisation ever since the second quarter of 2018.
She is now concurrently the acting CEO of Pokka International.
Pokka only alluded that higher management positions from both Pokka Corporation and Pokka International were being replaced in order to avoid disruptions to the company operations.
They did not comment further with regards to SMDN’s media queries as the internal audit is still ongoing.
Pokka clarified that there’ll be no impact on Pokka’s customers due to the management change.
Which means our iconic green tea beverages are definitely safe for now.
Featured image from Facebook and Facebook.
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