Cocaccola

International Distribution

Internationally Coca-Cola Company distributes 160 beverage varieties in nearly 200 countries worldwide. Coca-Cola owns 50% of the international soft drink market. Coca-Cola works extremely hard to be one of the few companies in the world to successfully reach literally billions of consumers. Coca-Cola's international distribution is the backbone to the their global approach. "About two-thirds of Coca-Cola's sales come from outside North America, making the company sensitive to global economic turmoil. On the other hand, that turmoil has enabled the company to make inexpensive international investments. Coca-Cola's affiliates have been purchasing numerous bottlers in the U.S. and around the world to recognize its global bottling system into major anchors in prime markets" (Coca-Cola Overview, 1). International distribution for Coca-Cola began when they decided to introduce Coke to Canada and Mexico in 1898. Within that same time period Coca-Cola expanded across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe.

The man responsible for this was Charles Howard Candler, the oldest son of Coca-Cola's founder Asa Candler. Charles brought with him a gallon of the secret syrup and sold it to an American owner of a London soda fountain. The Coca-Cola syrup made an immediate impact in Europe, which called for orders of five-gallon drums to Germany, Jamaica, and Panama. In 1906, the international bottling and distributing plants were established in Panama and Cuba.

Then in 1926, Coca-Cola's international distribution began to expand even more with the help of a man named Earnest Woodruff. He worked with his associates and Coca-Cola on organizing international expansion by creating a Foreign Department. In 1930, the Foreign Department became a subsidiary called The Coca-Cola Export Corporation distributing in only a few European countries and Canada. By 1940, Coca-Cola's sales began to increase with the expansion of bottlers in forty-five international...