The Coca-Cola Company
Summary
Brief Company Overview
The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) is a total beverage company originated in 1886 as a drink by an Atlanta pharmacist John S. Pemberton. The company owns or licenses and markets numerous beverage brands. The grouped brand names are - Trademark Coca-Cola; sparkling flavors; hydration, sports, coffee and tea; nutrition, juice, dairy and plant-based beverages; and emerging beverages. The company owns and makes five of top six nonalcoholic sparkling soft drink brands in the world - Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar.
The Coca-Cola Company sells more than 1.9 billion drinks everyday. The company has its reach in as many as 200 countries around the world. It employs 700,000+ employees across the company and bottling partners. The company has 225+ bottling partners across the globe and approximately 900 bottling plants across the globe.
The Coca-Cola Company is helmed currenly by James Robert B. Quincey as Chairman & CEO. Stock of the company is listed in the NYSE with symbol 'KO'.
Business Overview
The Coca-Cola Company operates throughout the world via its independent bottling partners, distributors and wholesalers. The primary way that the products reach the marketplace starts with Coca-Cola, which manufactures and sells concentrates, beverage bases and syrups to bottling operations. Coca-Cola also owns the brands and is responsible for consumer brand marketing initiatives. The bottler partners manufacture, package, merchandise and distribute final branded beverages to the customers and vending partners, who then sell the products to consumers.
The Coca-Cola Company generates its revenue by manufacturing and selling beverage concentrates and syrups, as well as finished beverages including sparkling soft drinks, water and sports drinks, juice, dairy and plant-based drinks, tea and coffee.1
In January 2006, the company-owned bottling operations were brought together to form the Bottling Investments Group, or BIG. BIG was created to ensure those bottling operations receive the appropriate investments and expertise to ensure their long term success.
Products
Sparkling
- Coca-Cola
- Fanta
- Diet Coke
- Sprite
Hydration
- AHA
- Powerade
- BODYARMOR
- smartwater
- Dasani
- Topo Chico
Coffee & Tea
- Costa Coffee
- Gold Peak Tea
- FuzeTea
- Peace Tea
Juices & Dairy
- Fairlife
- Minute Maid
- innocent
- Simply
Alcohol
- Fresca Mixed
- Simply Spiked
- Topo Chico Hard Seltzer
- Jack Daniel's & Coca-Cola
Company History2
| Year | Particular |
|---|---|
| 1886 | On May 8, Coca‑Cola is created by John S. Pemberton and served at Jacobs’ Pharmacy. Nine drinks a day are sold during this year. The name is chosen by the pharmacy accountant Frank Robinson. |
| 1887 | John Pemberton registers his “Coca‑Cola Syrup and Extract” label as a copyright with the U.S. Patent Office. |
| 1888 | Asa Candler begins to acquire personal control of the Coca‑Cola formula and patents from John Pemberton and his partners. |
| 1892 | Asa Candler finalizes the purchase and incorporates The Coca‑Cola Company as a Georgia Corporation. |
| 1893 | Company's second annual meeting and first dividend paid |
| 1895 | Asa Candler declares in the Annual Report that Coca‑Cola is sold and drunk in every state and territory in the United States. |
| 1901 | The advertising budget surpasses $100,000 for the first time. |
| 1904 | Annual sales of Coca‑Cola hit the 1 million-gallon mark. |
| 1906 | Bottling operations begin in Canada, Cuba and Panama, becoming the first three countries outside the United States to bottle Coca‑Cola |
| 1911 | The annual advertising budget for The Coca‑Cola Company surpasses $1 million for the first time. |
| 1912 | Bottling operation started in Philippines, first presence into Asia. |
| 1916 | Asa Candler retires from the company. |
| 1919 | The Coca‑Cola Company is purchased by a group of investors led by Ernest Woodruff for $25 million. |
| 1920 | The Coca‑Cola Company moves to its current location on North Avenue in Atlanta. |
| 1923 | Robert W. Woodruff is elected President of The Coca‑Cola Company, beginning more than six decades of leadership in the business. |
| 1930 | The Coca‑Cola Export Corporation is created to market Coca‑Cola outside the United States. |
| 1936 | The company celebrates its 50th birthday. |
| 1938 | Coca‑Cola enters Australia, Austria, Norway and South Africa. |
| 1939 | Robert Woodruff becomes Chairman of the Board. He serves until 1942. He later serves from 1952 to 1954. He serves as President of the Company from 1923 to 1939. |
| 1941 | The first paper cups for Coca‑Cola are introduced. |
| 1945 | “Coke” becomes a registered trademark of The Coca‑Cola Company. |
| 1948 | Coca‑Cola is introduced in Egypt. |
| 1950 | Coca‑Cola becomes the first product to appear on the cover of Time magazine. First television advertising for the company in the same year. |
| 1955 | Fanta Orange is introduced in Naples, Italy, the first new product to be distributed by the Company. The Fanta line of flavored beverages comes to the United States in 1960. |
| 1959 | Coca‑Cola is now distributed by a network of 1,700 bottlers, operating in more than 100 countries |
| 1960 | The Coca‑Cola Company acquires The Minute Maid Corporation, adding a line of juice products to its portfolio. |
| 1961 | The company celebrates its 75th anniversary. |
| 1961 | Sprite, a lemon-lime beverage, is introduced on February 1. |
| 1963 | TaB, the first diet drink produced by the Company, is launched. |
| 1966 | Fresca, a citrus-flavored sugar-free soft drink, makes its debut. |
| 1968 | Bottling begins in Hungary, the Somali Republic and Yugoslavia. |
| 1969 | A new graphic look for the Coca‑Cola system is introduced, featuring a red-and-white color scheme and logo. |
| 1979 | The North Avenue Tower headquarters building is first occupied. |
| 1981 | The first bottling plant opens in China. By 2010, the Company had opened more than 40 bottling plants in the country. |
| 1985 | Bottling operations begin in Russia; the formula for Coca‑Cola is changed for the first time in 99 years. The product, popularly dubbed “New Coke,” generated consumer protest nationwide. Product made with the original formula, renamed “Coca‑Cola Classic,” is returned to the market 79 days later |
| 1999 | The Coca‑Cola Company acquires Peruvian soft drink Inca Kola and Schweppes beverages in many markets around the world. |
| 2001 | The Coca‑Cola Company and Nestlé create a new company, Beverage Partners Worldwide, to market readyto-serve coffee and tea beverages; the Coca‑Cola Company acquires Odwalla Inc., a producer of premium refrigerated fruit beverages. |
| 2007 | The Coca‑Cola Company acquires Energy Brands Inc. (glacéau), maker of vitaminwater and smartwater. |
| 2011 | The Coca‑Cola Company celebrates 125 years of brand Coca‑Cola. |
| 2013 | The first EKOCENTER is established. EKOCENTER is a modular community market that is run by local woman entrepreneurs and provides safe drinking water, wireless communication, electricity and other functionality to jump-start entrepreneurship opportunities and community development. |
| 2017 | In 2017, Forbes ranked Coca-Cola as one of the top five most valuable brands worldwide. |
| 2021 | In February, as a plan to combat plastic waste, Coca-Cola said that it would start selling its sodas in bottles made from 100% recycled plastic material in the United States, and by 2030 planned to recycle one bottle or can for each one it sold. |
