The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the world's largest beverage company, largest manufacturer, distributor and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups in the world and is one of the largest corporations in the United States. The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in 1886. The Coca-Cola formula and brand was bought in 1889 by Asa Candler who incorporated The Coca-Cola Company in 1892. Besides its namesake Coca-Cola beverage, Coca-Cola currently offers nearly 400 brands in over 200 countries or territories and serves 1.5 billion servings each day.
The company operates a franchised distribution system dating from 1889 where The Coca-Cola Company only produces syrup concentrate which is then sold to various bottlers throughout the world who hold an exclusive territory.
The Coca-Cola Company is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Its stock is listed on the NYSE and is part of DJIA and S&P 500. Its current chairman and CEO is Muhtar Kent.
Brands
The Coca-Cola Company brands include:
- Barq's
- Coca-Cola
- Coke Zero
- Dasani water
- Diet Coke
- Glacéau
- Fanta
- Fresca
- Full Throttle
- Fuze
- Lift
- Minute Maid
- Monster Energy
- Oasis
- Odwalla
- Powerade
- Pibb
- Sprite
- Tab
- Thums Up
- Urge
- Vault
- Inka Cola
- Beverly (drink) (only sold in Italy)
- Fiora (drink) (only sold in Ecuador)
- Royal Tru (sold in Philippines and some parts of Southeast Asia)
History
The Coca-Cola Company was originally established as the J. S. Pemberton Medicine Company, a co-partnership between Dr. John Stith Pemberton and Ed Holland . The company was formed to sell three main products: Pemberton's French Wine Cola (later known as Coca-Cola), Pemberton's Indian Queen Hair Dye, and Pemberton's Globe Flower Cough Syrup.
In 1884, the company became a stock company and the name was changed to Pemberton Chemical Company. The new president was D. D. Doe while Ed Holland became the new Vice-President. Pemberton stayed on as the superintendent. The company's factory was located at No. 107, Marietta St. Three years later, the company was again changed to Pemberton Medicine Company, another co-partnership, this time between Pemberton, A. O. Murphy, E. H. Bloodworth, and J. C. Mayfield.
Finally in October 1888, the company received a charter with an authorized capital of $50,000. The charter became official on January 15, 1889. By this time, the company had expanded its offerings to include Pemberton's Orange and Lemon Elixir.
Revenue
According to the 2005 Annual Report, the company sells beverage products in more than 200 countries. The report further states that of the more than 50 billion beverage servings of all types consumed worldwide every day, beverages bearing the trademarks owned by or licensed to Coca-Cola account for approximately 1.5 billion. Of these, beverages bearing the trademark "Coca-Cola" or "Coke" accounted for approximately 78% of the Company's total gallon sales.
Also according to the 2007 Annual Report, Coca-Cola had gallon sales distributed as follows:
- 37% in the United States
- 43% in Mexico, Brazil, Japan and the People's Republic of China
- 20% spread throughout the rest of the world
Lobbying
In the US, Coca Cola is a major lobbying force working to gain favorable legislation for the beverage industry. In both 2005 and 2006, it spent $1 million each year on lobbying. In 2007 that increased to $1.7 million, and by 2008, to $2.5 million. In 2009, total lobbying expenses jumped to $4.5 million, or nearly double the previous year. Much of the increased lobbying expenses are due to the industry’s fight against increased taxes on soft drinks and other sweetened beverages. For 2009, Coca Cola has 38 lobbyists at 7 different firms lobbying on its behalf.
Bottlers
Main article: List of assets owned by The Coca-Cola CompanyIn general, The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) and/or subsidiaries only produces (or produce) syrup concentrate which is then sold to various bottlers throughout the world who hold a Coca-Cola franchise. Coca-Cola bottlers, who hold territorially exclusive contracts with the company, produce finished product in cans and bottles from the concentrate in combination with filtered water and sweeteners. The bottlers then sell, distribute and merchandise the resulting Coca-Cola product to retail stores, vending machines, restaurants and food service distributors.
One notable exception to this general relationship between TCCC and bottlers is fountain syrups in the United States, where TCCC bypasses bottlers and is responsible for the manufacture and sale of fountain syrups directly to authorized fountain wholesalers and some fountain retailers.
Products and brands
Main article: Coca-Cola brandsThe Coca-Cola Company offers nearly 400 brands in over 200 countries, besides its namesake Coca-Cola beverage. This includes other varieties of Coca-Cola such as:
- Diet Coke (introduced in 1982), which uses aspartame, a synthetic phenylalanine-based artificial sweetener in place of sugar
- Diet Coke Caffeine-Free
- Cherry Coke (1985)
- Diet Cherry Coke (1986)
- Coke with Lemon (2001)
- Diet Coke with Lemon (2001)
- Vanilla Coke (2002)
- Diet Vanilla Coke (2002)
- Coca-Cola C2 (2004)
- Coke with Lime (2004)
- Aquarius Mineral Water (2004)
- Diet Coke with Lime (2004)
- Diet Coke Sweetened with Splenda (2005)
- Coca-Cola Zero (2005)
- Coca-Cola Black Cherry Vanilla (2006)
- Diet Coca-Cola Black Cherry Vanilla (2006)
- Coca-Cola BlāK (2006)
- Diet Coke Plus (2007)
- Coca-Cola Orange (2007)
- Sprite
- Diet Coca-Cola with Citrus Extract (2008)
Tab was Coca-Cola's first attempt to develop a diet soft drink, using saccharin as a sugar substitute. Introduced in 1963, the product is still sold today, however its sales have dwindled since the introduction of Diet Coke.
The Coca-Cola Company also produces a number of other soft drinks including Fanta (introduced circa 1942 or 1943) and Sprite. Fanta's origins date back to World War II when Max Keith, who managed Coca-Cola's operations in Germany during the war, ran out of the ingredients for Coke, which could be supplied only from the United States. Keith resorted to producing a different soft drink, Fanta, which proved to be a hit, and when Coke took over again after the war, it adopted the Fanta brand as well. The German Fanta Klare Zitrone ("Clear Lemon Fanta") variety became Sprite, another of the company's bestsellers and its response to 7 Up.
During the 1990s, the company responded to the growing consumer interest in healthy beverages by introducing several new non-carbonated beverage brands. These included Minute Maid Juices to Go, Powerade sports beverage, flavored tea Nestea (in a joint venture with Nestle), Fruitopia fruit drink and Dasani water, among others. In 2001, Minute Maid division launched the Simply Orange brand of juices including orange juice.
In 2004, perhaps in response to the burgeoning popularity of low-carbohydrate diets such as the Atkins Diet, Coca-Cola announced its intention to develop and sell a low-carbohydrate alternative to Coke Classic, dubbed C2 Cola. C2 contains a mix of high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, sucralose, and Acesulfame potassium. C2 is designed to more closely emulate the taste of Coca-Cola Classic. Even with less than half of the food energy and carbohydrates of standard soft drinks, C2 is not a replacement for zero-calorie soft drinks such as Diet Coke. C2 went on sale in the U.S. on June 11, 2004, and in Canada in August 2004. C2's future is uncertain due to disappointing sales.
Coca-Cola is the best-selling soft drink in most countries. While the Middle East is one of the only regions in the world where Coca-Cola is not the number one soda drink, Coca-Cola nonetheless holds almost 25% marketshare (to Pepsi's 75%) and had double-digit growth in 2003. Similarly, in Scotland, where the locally produced Irn-Bru was once more popular, 2005 figures show that both Coca-Cola and Diet Coke now outsell Irn-Bru. In Peru, the native Inca Kola has been more popular than Coca-Cola, which prompted Coca-Cola to enter in negotiations with the soft drink's company and buy 50% of its stakes. In Japan, the best selling soft drink is not cola, as (canned) tea and coffee are more popular. As such, the Coca-Cola Company's best selling brand there is not Coca-Cola, but Georgia.
Some claim Coke is less popular in India due to suspicions regarding the health standards of the drink.
On July 6, 2006, a Coca-Cola employee and two other people were arrested and charged with trying to sell trade secrets information to the soft drink maker's competitor, PepsiCo for $1.5 million. The recipe for Coca-Cola, perhaps the company's most closely guarded secret, was never in jeopardy. Instead, th
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