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The Coca-Cola Company

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The Coca-Cola Company logo
The Coca-Cola Company logo
The Coca-Cola Company's headquarters in Atlanta, GA.

The Coca-Cola Company NYSE: KO is an international beverage and food manufacturer whose headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States of America. It is best known for its flagship product, Coca-Cola.

History

World War II

Coca-Cola had a controversial relationship with Nazism before and during World War II. The company adopted an apparent policy of ignoring the Nazis' practice of eugenics and anti-semitism. Indeed, several of Coke's top executives in Germany were prominent Nazi members. When the United States entered World War II, Coke began to represent itself as a patriotic drink by providing free drinks for American soldiers.

The American Army permitted Coca-Cola employees to enter the frontlines as "Technical Officers" when in reality they rarely if ever came close to a real battle. Instead, they operated Coke's system of providing refreshments for soldiers, who welcomed the beverage as a reminder of home. As the Allies advanced, so did Coke, which took advantage of the situation by establishing new franchises in the newly occupied countries. The popularity of the drink exploded in the wake of World War II as American soldiers returned home, more grateful than ever to partake of a beverage that had become synonymous with the American way of life.

In the 1930s, Robert W. Woodruff became president of the Coca-Cola Company, presiding over the drink and its destiny till his death in 1985. Although he eventually stepped down from his post due to stress, he retained control over the company despite holding positions with an ostensibly low profile. His fanatical devotion to Coke was widely reported, and even in his old age, whenever he stopped by a Coke vendor, he would count how many bottles in the trash belonged to Coca-Cola. This almost devout dedication to the product spilled over to other executives in the company. In recent years, Rick Bronson, a truck driver for Coca-Cola, was fired for drinking a Pepsi (some allege it was actually over his involvement with unions). He was reinstated after a high-profile protest.

Management

Stock

Exchanges

It's listed on the

Indicies

It's part of the

Products and brands

File:Diet Coke.jpg
Diet Coke was introduced in 1982 to offer an alternative to dieters worried about the high number of calories present in Classic Coke.

Main article: Coca-Cola brands

The company produces many other soft drinks, including other varieties of Coca-Cola such as Diet Coke (introduced in 1982), which uses aspartame, a synthetic phenylalanine-based sweetener, to eliminate the sugar content of the drink; Caffeine-free Coke; Cherry Coke (1985); Diet Cherry Coke (1986); Coke with Lemon (2001); Diet Coke with Lemon (2001); Vanilla Coke (2002); Diet Vanilla Coke (2002); and Diet Coke with Lime (2004).

Tab was Coca-Cola's first attempt to develop a diet soft drink, using saccharine 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.

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 calories 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 US on June 11 2004, and in Canada in August 2004.

Coca-Cola is the best-selling soft drink in most countries. Nevertheless, there are some places like Scotland, where the locally produced Irn Bru is more popular, and Quebec and Prince Edward Island, Canada, where Pepsi is the market leader. Coke is less popular in other places, including some Middle Eastern and Asian countries such as Palestine and India — in the latter, due to suspicions regarding the health standards of the drink, and in the former, due to anti-American sentiment or (debunked) rumors that Coca-Cola supports Israel.

The Coca-Cola Company owns numerous brands and trademarks. Probably the most well-known besides Coca-Cola, Coke, and their various spinoffs are Sprite, Fanta, Tab, Surge, Minute Maid, Powerade, Barq's and Mello Yello (see Coca-Cola brands).

List of brands

The company is most commonly associated with its eponymous flagship product Coca-Cola. However, it also manufactures many other widely marketed and consumed products, and bottles and distributes other soft drink brands. Some of the other more recognizable brands in their case volume are:

Failures

The company has had several failed branding attempts, including:

Criticisms

As the largest seller of soft drinks in the world, the Coca-Cola Company has had its fair share of criticism for anything from monopolistic practices to low health standards, racist employing practices, and assassinating union members. There are many controversies surrounding the company, its products and its trade practices. Coca-Cola has recently been denounced in the UK for weaning young children onto junk food. In India, the corporation has provoked a number of boycotts and protests as a result of its perceived low standards of hygiene and adverse impact on the environment. In Colombia, the company was found to be responsible for 179 major human rights violations, including nine murders.

Coca-Cola in India

Coca-Cola was banned from import in India in 1970 as a result of the corporation's refusal to release the list of its ingredients. In 1993, the ban was lifted in pursuance of India's Liberalization policy. Soon after the relaunch, a study led by the Center for Science and the Environment (CSE) - an independent scientific laboratory in New Delhi - found that Coca-Cola, along with competitor Pepsi, contained residues of dangerous pesticides at levels some thirty times the prescribed Indian and European norms. There were instances of substandard bottling practices by the company: the notorious discovery of a dead lizard inside a sealed Coca-Cola bottle was widely publicized. Environmental degradation in the form of depletion of the local ground water table due to the utilization of natural water resources by the company posed a serious threat to many communities. Finally, there were suspicions surrounding the addictive nature of the drink. As the company refused to disclose the exact ingredients, this remains a matter of speculation. In response to these allegedly unethical practices, several non-governmental organizations launched anti-Coca-Cola campaigns in India.

In addition, the Coca-Cola production facility in Kerala has been blamed for a drastic decline in both quanitity and quality of water available to local farmers and villagers. The plant has the capacity to draw 1.5 million liters of water from the ground each day. As water is viewed as a public good in India, there is no regulatory agency to challenge this. Reacting to villager complaints that water supplies had rapidly dwindled and were murky (several tests suggest that the water was undrinkable), the High Court in Kerala ruled in 2003 that the plant could only use as much water as any other landowner with 34 acres (140,000 m²) in the region. The case has been appealed and a decision is pending.

On December 7 2004, India's Supreme Court ruled that both Coca-Cola and competitor Pepsi must label all cans and bottles of the respective soft drinks with a consumer warning after tests showed unacceptable levels of residual pesticides. Both companies continue to maintain that their products meet all international safety standards.

Coca-Cola bottlers and trade unions

Coca-Cola bottler Panamco has been criticized for its relationship with unions. In Colombia, it has been alleged that the bottling company hired paramilitary mercenaries to assassinate union leaders. In January 2004, the New York City Fact-Finding Delegation on Coca-Cola in Colombia [1] [2] confirmed the workers' allegations. They found

To date, there have been a total of 179 major human rights violations of Coca-Cola's workers, including nine murders. Family members of union activists have been abducted and tortured. Union members have been fired for attending union meetings. The company has pressured workers to resign their union membership and contractual rights, and fired workers who refused to do so.
Most troubling to the delegation were the persistent allegations that paramilitary violence against workers was done with the knowledge of and likely under the direction of company managers. The physical access that paramilitaries have had to Coca-Cola bottling plants is impossible without company knowledge and/or tacit approval. ...

Critics argue that, whatever their source, these assassinations seem to have been helpful to Coca-Cola in eliminating troublemakers from their bottling plants. The bottler and The Coca-Cola Company deny these allegations.

In the 1980s, Guatemala also suffered a spate of mysterious murders of union-affiliated Coca-Cola employees. At one point, paramilitary mercenaries violently occupied a factory. Eventually, after pressure from several organisations worldwide, the conflict was ended when the corporation appointed a new franchise operator who brokered a deal with the union.

There have been troubled (but slightly less publicized) relations between the company and unions in other parts of the world, notably the Philippines, Zimbabwe, and even the United States. In 2002, two Coca-Cola shareholders, the Christian Brothers, presented a resolution at the shareholders' meeting that called for Coca-Cola to adopt a code of conduct on bottling practices and employee relations. The shareholders rejected the resolution, despite the fact that it had received almost unanimous union support in the aforementioned countries.

In July 2004, the United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund filed suit in US court against Coca-Cola and some bottlers in Colombia on behalf of their workers. According to the plaintiffs, the companies "hired, contracted with or otherwise directed paramilitary security forces". The companies deny the charges.

Implications of doing business in Israel/Palestine

A common belief is that Coca-Cola supports Israel, or Palestine, depending on the proclivities of the urban mythologist. For example, a controversy arose in Egypt when a consumer mistook an Ethiopian inscription on a Coca-Cola bottle for Hebrew, sparking anger amongst Arab consumers of the drink. Coke's Egyptian manager reassured the press that the company would never open a bottling plant in Israel, thereby immediately escalating a local controversy almost to the status of an international incident.

In truth, Coca-Cola had attempted to open a plant in Israel in 1949, but the Israeli government refused the permit, and the company did not push the issue further. A boycott began in the United States, leading to Coke's announcement that they would open a plant in Tel Aviv. This caused fury amongst Arab consumers of Coca-Cola, who in turn — led by the Arab League (with the exception of Egypt, whose boycott only lasted till 1979) — boycotted Coke until 1991.

Pepsi also suffered from boycotts in America after intentionally avoiding Israel. This controversy eventually subsided when Pepsi entered the Israeli market in 1992. [3]

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, rumors abounded that Coke supported Israel with donations. Although they turned out to be false, numerous calls were made for a boycott against Coca-Cola in the Middle East. However, as a substantial amount of Coca-Cola is produced in a plant in Ramallah, some believe that such boycotts would likely hinder rather than help the Palestinian cause. [4]

Along with McDonald's, Coca-Cola has become an international symbol of American culture, and especially of American consumerism. While the company still enjoys widespread popularity, some backlash has occurred, mostly in the form of boycotts in the Middle East. A French Tunisian, Tawfiq Mathlouthi, launched a new brand of Cola, dubbed Mecca-Cola, to protest American foreign policy in the Middle East. The company donates 10% of its profits to Palestinian charities.

See also

Bibliography

  • Pendergrast, Mark: For God, Country, and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It. New York: Basic Books, 2000 (second edition; ISBN 0465054684).
  • Zyman, Sergio: The End of Marketing as We Know It. New York: HarperBusiness (1st edition (June 1, 1999) ISBN 0887309860).

Criticism

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