The Coca-Cola Company, incorporated in September 1919, is a beverage company. The Company owns or licenses and markets more than 500 nonalcoholic beverage brands, primarily sparkling beverages but also a variety of still beverages, such as waters, enhanced waters, juices and juice drinks, ready-to-drink teas and coffees, and energy and sports drinks. It owns and markets a range of nonalcoholic sparkling beverage brands, which includes Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite. The Company’s segments include Eurasia and Africa, Europe, Latin America, North America, Pacific, Bottling Investments and Corporate. On December 30, 2011, the Company acquired Great Plains Coca-Cola Bottling Company (Great Plains) in the United States. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company acquired the remaining interest in Great Plains and Honest Tea, Inc. (Honest Tea). In December 2011, the Company acquired an additional minority interest in Coca-Cola Central Japan Company (Central Japan). In September 2012, it acquired approximately 50% equity in Aujan Industries’ beverage business.
The Company markets, manufactures and sells beverage concentrates, sometimes referred to as beverage bases, and syrups, including fountain syrups, and finished sparkling and still beverages. Outside the United States, it also sells concentrates for fountain beverages to its bottling partners. The Company sells sparkling beverages and a variety of still beverages, such as juices and juice drinks, energy and sports drinks, ready-to-drink teas and coffees, and certain water products, to retailers or to distributors, wholesalers and bottling partners who distribute them to retailers. In addition, in the United States, it manufactures fountain syrups and sells them to fountain retailers, such as restaurants and convenience stores who use the fountain syrups to produce beverages for immediate consumption, or to authorized fountain wholesalers or bottling partners who resell the fountain syrups to fountain retailers.
The Company manufactures, markets and sells Leao / Matte Leao teas in Brazil through a joint venture with its bottling partners. During 2011, the Company introduced a variety of brands, brand extensions and beverage products: the Latin America group launched Frugos Sabores Caseros; in the Pacific group, Fanta, a fruit-flavored sparkling beverage, was relaunched in Singapore and Malaysia; Real Leaf, a green tea-based beverage, launched two varieties in Vietnam; and in South Korea it introduced three flavor variants of the Georgia Emerald Mountain Blend ready-to-drink coffee beverage and Burn Intense, an energy drink; the Europe group launched Powerade ION4 in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and France, France launched Powerade Zero; in the Eurasia and Africa group, Turkey launched Cappy Pulpy, and India launched Fanta Powder, an orange-flavored powder formulation; Schweppes Novida, a sparkling malt drink, was launched in Kenya and Uganda; and in Uganda Coca-Cola Zero was launched; in Egypt, it launched Cappy Fruitbite; and Schweppes Gold, a sparkling flavored malt drink, and in Ghana, it launched Schweppes Malt, a dark malt drink. During 2011, the Company sold approximately 26.7 billion unit cases of its products.
The Company’s core sparkling beverages include Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Diet Coke / Coca-Cola Light, Coca-Cola Zero, Schweppes, Thums Up, Fresca, Inca Kola, Lift and Barq's. Its energy drinks include Burn, Nos and Real Gold. Its juices and juice drinks include Minute Maid, Minute Maid Pulpy, Del Valle, Simply, Hi-C, Dobriy and Cappy. The Company’s other still beverages include glaceau vitaminwater and Fuze. The Company’s coffees and teas include Nestea teas, Georgia coffees, Leao / Matte Leao teas, Sokenbicha teas, Dogadan teas and Ayataka teas. Its sports drinks include Powerade and Aquarius. The Company’s waters include Ciel, Dasani, Ice Dew, Bonaqua / Bonaqa and Kinley.
The Company competes with PepsiCo, Inc., Nestle, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc., Groupe Danone, Kraft Foods Inc. and Unilever.