Coke Case Study

Financial Administration – Final Case

OAD 40063

Ottawa University

Instructor: Christine McEleney

Mary Schock

December 13 2014

Introduction

The Coca-Cola Company manufactures and distributes soft drinks worldwide. The company was founded in 1886 and is headquartered in Atlanta Georgia. Products are offered through a network of company owned or controlled bottling and distribution operators, as well as independent partners, distributors and retailers. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Coca-Cola as an organization, look at the company’s primary lines of business, consumer demands and social responsibility.

Body

The primary lines of business license and market over 500 non-alcoholic beverages. They also offer a variety of waters, juices, ready-to drink teas, coffees, energy and sports drinks. The company owns four out of five of the world’s top non-alcoholic sparkling beverage brands, which are Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite. Coca-Cola believes that their success depends on connecting with consumers. The company provides a wide variety of options to meet the demands of consumer’s lifestyles, needs and desires.

According to an article by Matt Egan of Fox Business, “People want healthier products. Carbonated soft drinks have never been positioned that way. The consumer is moving gradually to a healthier place. Diet soft drink consumption has declined in each of the past six years, including a 3.4% tumble in 2012 and a 2.5% drop in 2011. The carbonated soft drink category may be a mature market, but it remains a cash cow. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have a combined market capitalization of more than $300 billion. While carbonated soft drink volume shrank by 1.8% in 2012, energy drink volume soared 14.3%, ready-to-drink coffee jumped 9.5%, bottled water increased 5.8% and ready-to-drink tea gained 4.9%.” (2013)

Coca-Cola’s gross profits in 2011 were $28,326,000, their operating...