Research Project
For
ACC 412
Presented to:
Overview of Coca-Cola
Leading the beverage industry for the third consecutive year, Coca-Cola, a common household name known around the world, climbs to the 4th spot in Fortune's 50 Most Admired Companies in the world for year 2012. When it comes to a refreshing cold soda, who does not know of Coca-Cola? The company was established in 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia at the Jacobs' Pharmacy soda fountain by pharmacist John Pemberton. In its humble beginning, a glass of this drink costed only five cents and only 9 glasses of Coca-Cola were sold each day. Since then, Coca-Cola has grown to be a multi-billion dollar company. Employing approximately 139,600 workers worldwide, it operates in more than 200 countries with more than 300 bottling partners around the world to produce more than 3,500 types of regular, diet and caffeine-free drinks, water, and mixers such as A&W, Bacardi Mixers, Cherry Coke Zero, Dasani, Eva Water, Fanta, Glacéau Smartwater, Hi-C, Minute Maid Light, Nestea, Powerade, and the list goes on. In expanding its empire, Coca-Cola currently has headquarters all over the world leaving footsteps in the continents of North America, Latin America, Europe, Eurasia, Africa, and the Middle-East. Marking the 49th consecutive year of increased dividends, in his March 31, 2011 letter to shareholders, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Muhtar Kent announced that the company has "added more than 1 billion incremental unit cases of volume to [the] business in 2010. Our unit case volume grew 5 percent and we exceeded our long-term growth target for unit case volume and operating income." In 2010 alone the company generated $9.5 billion in cash from operations, an increase of 16 percent since 2009, and the drink, Minute Maid Pulpy, which was developed only five years ago in China achieved the status of the 14th brand to earn an annual retail sales of more than $1 billion.