KO - I didn't realize what a HIGH percentage of product is actually bottled BY Coca-Cola ... under "Coca-Cola Enterprises".
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ATLANTA -- Coca-Cola Enterprises said Monday it will buy closely held Coke Southwest for $1.1 billion in stock and assumed debt, to add the fifth-largest U.S. bottler to its system for packaging and distributing Coca-Cola Co. drinks.
With the purchase, Coca-Cola Enterprises will gain operations in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas. Coca-Cola Enterprises, which has made several international purchases in the past year, already bottles 65 percent of the Coke in the United States...
Coca-Cola Co., the largest shareholder in Coca-Cola Enterprises with 44 percent of the stock, spun off the bottler in 1986 as part of a strategy by M. Douglas Ivester, now chief executive, to get the low-margin business off its books. Now, Ivester is moving to consolidate bottling among a few big companies worldwide to better direct Coca-Cola's expansion.
"Coke can execute things like new product expansion better when it's got one bottler in the U.S. rather than scores of bottlers," said Schroder & Co. analyst Caroline Levy ... "Long term, I believe Coke Enterprises will eventually operate the entire U.S. distribution system."
Other Coca-Cola bottlers such as Panamerican Beverages and Coca-Cola Femsa in Latin America, Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd. in Australia and Asia, and Coca-Cola Sabco in Africa dominate the company's bottling and distribution on those continents ...
Coke Southwest, which is made up of CCBG Corp. and Texas Bottling Group, is principally owned by the Hoffman family of Dallas and Prudential Insurance Co. It had 1997 sales of $431 million ... The Dallas-based bottler has about 2.4 percent of Coca-Cola's U.S. volume.
chron.com
Bloomberg Business News & Houston Chronicle April 7, 1998
Cheryl |
