Essay

Coca-Cola in Africa

Introduction

According to the Coca-Cola Company (2013), the Coca-Cola Company is the world’s largest beverage company. They own or license and market 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. Founded in 1892, Coca-Cola entered Africa in 1929. About $12billion will be used to beef up plants and distribution facilities in Africa.

Africa indeed has some of the poorest countries in the world, 12 African countries have a GDP per capita that is greater than China’s. Africa could be the big story of the next decade like China was in past decade. US-style accusations of Coca-Cola’s alleged contribution to the obesity problem are unlikely. It’s a big economy, and so rich underground.

According why Coca-Cola have to go to Africa, health advocates accused Coca-Cola of contributing to an epidemic of obesity in the United States and proposed to tax soft drinks to pay for health care. While Coca-Cola defeated the tax initiative, it is fair to say the room for growth at home is limited. In Europe and Japan, sales are similarly flat. Elsewhere in China, strong local rivals have made it tough for Coca-Cola to break out. Its acquisition of a leading local fruit juice firm was blocked by the government, which didn’t seem to bless Coca-Cola’s further growth. In India and Thailand, Pepsi is more popular

Key problems

- Conflict in African countries, wars, poor infrastructure, make it extremely difficult to distribute and market products in hard-to-access regions.

- Poverty. Countries in Africa continent, most of them are poor for example Burandi and Congo with the annual average salary at 560 US$ and 466 US$, respectively.

- Unstable politic

- Competitor, in beverage industry, Coca-Cola’s market...