Coca-Cola and International Market Opportunity

The Coca-Cola Company has long been a worldwide business. The first soda
fountain sales to Canada and Mexico were recorded in 1897 with the first
international bottler established in Panama in 1906. Coca-Cola entered China in
1927 and the 100th country, Sierra Leone, in 1957. Today, the Coca-Cola
Company is the largest beverage company with the most extensive distribution
system in the world. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, the
international growth of Coca-Cola had been rather haphazard. It began in 1900,
when Charles Howard Candler, eldest son of Asa Candler, took a jug of syrup
with him on vacation to England. A modest order for five gallons of syrup was
mailed back to Atlanta. The same year, Coca-Cola travelled to Cuba and Puerto
Rico, and it wasn't long before the international distribution of syrup began.
Through the early 1900s, bottling operations were built in Cuba, Panama,
Canada, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam (western Pacific island). In
1920, a bottling company began operating in France as the first bottler of Coca-
Cola on the European continent.
In 1926, Robert W.Woodruff, chief executive officer and chairman of the board,
committed the company to organized international expansion by establishing the
Foreign Department, which in 1930 became a subsidiary known as the Coca-
Cola Export Corporation. By that time, the number of countries with bottling
operations had almost quadrupled, and the company had initiated a partnership
with the Olympic Games that transcended cultural boundaries. Coca-Cola and
the Olympic Games began their association in the summer of 1928, when an
American freighter arrived in Amsterdam carrying the United States Olympic
team and 1,000 cases of Coca-Cola. Forty thousand spectators filled the stadium
to witness two firsts: the first lighting of the Olympic flame and the first sale of
Coke at an Olympiad. Dressed in caps and coats bearing the Coca-Cola
trademark, vendors satisfied the fans' thirst, while outside the stadium,
refreshment stands, cafes, restaurants, and small shops called 'winkles' served
Coke in bottles and from soda fountains. The company began a major push to
establish bottling operations outside the USA. Plants were opened in France,
Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Belgium, Italy, and South Africa. By the time the
Second World War began, Coca-Cola was being bottled in forty-four countries,
including those on both sides of the conflict. Far from devastating the business,
the war simply presented a new set of challenges and opportunities for the entire
Coca-Cola system. The entry of the United States into the war brought an order
from Robert Woodruff in 1941 'to see that every man in uniform gets a bottle of
Coca-Cola for 5 cents, wherever he is and whatever it costs the Company.' This
effort to supply the armed forces with Coke was being launched when an urgent
cablegram arrived from General Dwight Eisenhower's Allied Headquarters in
North Africa. Dated 29 June 1943, it requested shipment of materials and
equipment for ten bottling plants. Prefaced by the directive that the shipments
were not to replace other military cargo, the cablegram also requested shipment
of 3 million filled bottles of Coca-Cola, along with supplies for producing the same
quantity twice monthly.
Within six months, a company engineer had flown to Algiers and opened the first
plant, the forerunner of sixty four bottling plants shipped abroad during the
Second World War. The plants were set up as close as possible to combat areas
in Europe and the Pacific. More than 5 billion bottles of Coke were consumed by
military service personnel during the war, in addition to countless servings
through dispensers and mobile, self-contained units in battle areas. But the
presence of Coca-Cola did more than just lift the morale of the troops. In many
areas, it gave local people their first taste of Coca-Cola. When peace returned,
the Coca-Cola system was poised for unprecedented worldwide growth. The
1940s also saw a new campaign theme where Coco Cola used an adapted
‘Santa Clause’ to run a campaign ‘Santa brings home Coke’ which influenced
and converted a whole new generation of customers (kids). It also ensured the
association of Coke with the themes of ‘happiness & Celebration’; which was the
basis of their modern day positioning and had a universal application. From the
mid-1940s until 1960, the number of countries with bottling operations nearly
doubled. As the world emerged from a time of conflict, Coca-Cola emerged as a
worldwide symbol of friendship and refreshment. The Coca-Cola Company is
now operating in more than 200 countries and producing nearly 400 brands; the
Coca-Cola system has successfully applied a simple formula on a global scale:
provide a moment of refreshment for a very small amount of money-a billion
times a day. The Coca-Cola Company and its network of bottlers comprise the
most sophisticated and pervasive production and distribution system in the world.
From Boston to Beijing, from Montreal to Moscow, Coca-Cola, more than any
other consumer product, has brought pleasure to thirsty consumers around the
globe.