The Coca-Cola Company

• The Coca-Cola Company, American corporation founded in 1892 and today engaged primarily in the manufacture and sale of syrup and concentrate for Coca-Cola, a sweetened carbonated beverage that is a cultural institution in the United States and a global symbol of American tastes. The company also produces and sells other soft drinks and citrus beverages. With more than 2,800 products available in more than 200 countries, Coca-Cola is the largest beverage manufacturer and distributor in the world and one of the largest corporations in the United States. Headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia.

• Under Candler’s leadership, sales rose from about 9,000 gallons of syrup in 1890 to 370,877 gallons in 1900. Also during that decade, syrup-making plants were established in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, and the product came to be sold in every U.S. state and territory as well as in Canada. In 1899 the Coca-Cola Company signed its first agreement with an independent bottling company, which was allowed to buy the syrup and produce, bottle, and distribute the Coca-Cola drink. Such licensing agreements formed the basis of a unique distribution system that now characterizes most of the American soft-drink industry. Capitalized at $100,000 in 1892 upon incorporation, the Coca-Cola Company was sold in 1919 for $25 million to a group of investors led by Atlanta businessman Ernest Woodruff. His son, Robert Winship Woodruff, guided the company as president and chairman for more than three decades (1923–55).
• The post-World War II years saw diversification in the packaging of Coca-Cola and the development or acquisition of new products. The trademark “Coke,” first used in advertising in 1941, was registered in 1945. In 1946 the company purchased rights to Fanta, a soft drink previously developed in Germany. The contoured Coca-Cola bottle, first introduced in 1916, was registered in 1960. The company also introduced the lemon-lime drink Sprite in 1961 and its first diet cola, sugar-free Tab, in 1963. With its purchase of Minute Maid Corporation in 1960, the company entered the citrus juice market. It added the brand Fresca in 1966.

• In 1978 Coca-Cola became the only company allowed to sell cold packaged beverages in the People’s Republic of China. In 1982 the company introduced its low-calorie sugar-free soft drink Diet Coke (originally named Diet Coca-Cola). In an effort to address its decline in market share, the company adopted a new flavour of Coca-Cola in April 1985, using a formula it developed through taste tests. New Coke was not well received, however. Owing to the public outcry, Coca-Cola revived its original flavour in July, which was then marketed as Coca-Cola Classic. From 1982 to 1989 the company held a controlling interest in Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., a motion-picture and entertainment company.

• New markets opened up for Coca-Cola in the early 1990s; the company began selling products in East Germany in 1990 and in India in 1993. In 1992 the company introduced its first bottle made partially from recycled plastic—a major innovation in the industry at the time. Coca-Cola created many new beverages during the 1990s, including the Asia
• marketed Qoo children’s fruit drink, Powerade sports drink, and Dasani bottled water. Coca-Cola also acquired Barq’s root beer in the United States; Inca Kola in Peru; Maaza, Thums Up, and Limca in India; and Cadbury Schweppes beverages, which were sold in more than 120 countries across the globe.

• In the early 2000s Coca-Cola faced allegations of illegal soil and water pollution, as well as allegations of severe human rights violations. In 2001 the United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) filed a lawsuit against Coca-Cola and Bebidas y Alimentos and Panamerican Beverages, Inc. (also known as Panamco LLC; the primary bottlers of Coca-Cola’s beverages in Latin America), claiming that the defendants had openly engaged so-called “death squads” to intimidate, torture, kidnap, and even murder union officials in Latin America. The controversy gained worldwide attention and led several American universities to ban the sale of Coca-Cola products on their campuses. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed.

• In 2005 the company introduced Coca-Cola Zero, a zero-calorie soft drink with the taste of regular Coca-Cola. In 2007 the company acquired Energy Brands, Inc., along with its variously enhanced waters. That same year Coca-Cola announced that it would join the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR), a group of companies working together to develop and implement corporate responses to human rights issues that affect the business world

• History of Coca-Cola Secrets of Coca-Cola

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