Coca-Cola Consolidated saw such a decline in accidents after one year that the company has expanded to three safety campaigns in 2025: the First 100 Days of Safety, Sumer Safety Focus, and Finish Strong and Safe. Together, these campaigns seek to raise awareness and improve education surrounding the company’s biggest risks, and eliminate—or at least reduce—the number of safety incidents.
While each campaign has its own focus, they all address known safety issues, such as ergonomics, fleet safety and employee engagement.
Padgett says the company has dabbled with safety campaigns before, but they really wanted to catch workers’ attention and reinforce safe practices.
"This really all came about thinking in those terms: How do I get our message out?" he says. "We're doing really good. So number one, I want to celebrate and let everybody know how good we're doing. But how do we get better?"
It helps that there's a competitive spirit at Coca-Cola Consolidated.
“Market leaders are very competitive, and each market and each market unit wants to do better than the other in a healthy, friendly competition. We've been able to hone in on that and use that to help us also drive the safety message. They've done a fantastic job getting in front of teammates and leaders.”
Padgett will detail what Coca-Cola Consolidated has tried and achieved thus far with its safety campaigns as well as how he plans to tweak them going forward at Safety Leadership Conference 2025, being held from October 20-22 in Pheonix, Arizona. More information, including registration, can be found at http://www.safetyleadershipconference.com.
Listen to Padgett’s full conversation with Managing Editor Nicole Stempak below.
