The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the largest manufacturer, distributor and marketer of nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups in the world. Coca-Cola's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States of America.

It is best known for its flagship product, Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola is one of the largest corporations in the United States, and is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Its primary rival is PepsiCo, a company based in Purchase, New York. The company is listed on the NYSE and is part of Dow Jones and S&P 500.

History

When the United States entered World War II, The Coca-Cola Company began providing free drinks for soldiers of the United States Army. The United States Army permitted Coca-Cola employees to enter the front lines as "Technical Officers" where they operated Coke's system of providing refreshments for soldiers, who welcomed the beverage as a reminder of home. Coca-Cola set up bottling plants in several locations overseas to assure the drink's availability to soldiers, setting the stage for the company's post-war overseas expansion. The popularity of the drink exploded as American soldiers returned home from the war with a taste for the drink. The beverage had become synonymous with the American way of life.

Before the United States entered World War II, the difficulty of shipping Coca-Cola concentrate to Germany and its occupied states led to the creation of a new drink by a Coca-Cola employee, Fanta.

In the 1930s, Robert W. Woodruff became president of the Coca-Cola Company, presiding over the drink and its destiny till his death in 1985. Although he eventually stepped down from his post due to stress, he retained control over the company despite holding positions with an ostensibly low profile. His fanatical devotion to Coke was widely reported, and even in his old age, whenever he stopped by a Coke vendor, he would count how many bottles in the trash belonged to Coca-Cola. This almost devout dedication to the product spilled over to other executives in the company. In recent years, Rick Bronson, a truck driver for Coca-Cola, was fired for drinking a Pepsi (some allege it was actually over his involvement with unions). He was reinstated after a high-profile protest.

Revenue

According to the 2005 Annual Report^[4], the company sells beverage products in more than 200 countries. The report further states that of the more than 50 billion beverage servings of all types consumed worldwide every day, beverages bearing the trademarks owned by or licensed to Coca-Cola account for approximately 1.3 billion. Of these, beverages bearing the trademark "Coca-Cola" or "Coke" accounted for approximately 55% of the Company's total gallon sales.

Also according to the 2005 Annual Report, Coca-Cola had gallon sales distributed as follows:

• 27% in the United States
• 27% in Mexico, Brazil, Japan and China
• 46% in spread throughout the world

Bottlers

In general, The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) only produces syrup concentrate which is then sold to various bottlers throughout the world who hold a Coca-Cola franchise. Coca-Cola bottlers, who hold territorially exclusive contracts with the company, produce finished product in cans and bottles from the concentrate in combination with filtered water and sweeteners. The bottlers then sell, distribute and merchandise the resulting Coca-Cola product to retail stores, vending machines, restaurants and food service distributors.

One notable exception to this general relationship between TCCC and bottlers is fountain syrups in the United States, where TCCC bypasses bottlers and is responsible for the manufacture and sale of fountain syrups directly to authorized fountain wholesalers and some fountain retailers.

In 2005, Coca-Cola had equity positions in 51 unconsolidated bottling, canning and distribution operations which produced approximately 58% of volume. Significant investees include:

• 36% of Coca-Cola Enterprises which produces (by population) for 78% of USA, 98% of Canada and 100% of Great Britain (but not Northern Ireland), continental France and the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and Monaco.
• 40% of Coca-Cola FEMSA, S.A. de C.V. which produces (by population) for 48% of Mexico, 16% of Brazil, 98% of Colombia, 47% of Guatemala, 100% of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela, and 30% of Argentina.
• 24% of Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company S.A. which produces (by population) for 67% of Italy and 100% of Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Lativa, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Poland, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Ukraine.
• 34% of Coca-Cola Amatil which produces (by population) for 98% of Indonesia and 100% of Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, South Korea, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

Products and brands

The Coca-Cola Company offers nearly 400 brands in over 200 countries, besides its namesake Coca-Cola beverage.

This includes other varieties of Coca-Cola such as Diet Coke (introduced in 1982), which uses aspartame, a synthetic phenylalanine-based sweetener, to eliminate the sugar content of the drink; Caffeine-free Coke; Cherry Coke (1985); Diet Cherry Coke (1986); Coke with Lemon (2001); Diet Coke with Lemon (2001); Vanilla Coke (2002); Diet Vanilla Coke (2002); Coca-Cola C2 (2004); Coke with Lime (2004); Diet Coke with Lime (2004); Diet Coke with Splenda (2005), Coca-Cola Zero (2005), Coca-Cola Black Cherry Vanilla (2006), Diet Coca-Cola Black Cherry Vanilla (2006), and Coca-Cola Blak

Tab was Coca-Cola's first attempt to develop a diet soft drink, using saccharin as a sugar substitute. Introduced in 1963, the product is still sold today, however its sales have dwindled since the introduction of Diet Coke.

The Coca-Cola Company also produces a number of other soft drinks including Fanta (introduced circa 1942 or 1943) and Sprite. Fanta's origins date back to World War II when Max Keith, who managed Coca-Cola's operations in Germany during the war, ran out of the ingredients for Coke, which could be supplied only from the United States. Keith resorted to producing a different soft drink, Fanta, which proved to be a hit, and when Coke took over again after the war, it adopted the Fanta brand as well.

During the 1990s the company responded to the growing consumer interest in healthy beverages by introducing several new non-carbonated beverage brands. These included Minute Maid Juices to Go, Powerade sports beverage, Cool from Nestea (in a joint venture with Nestle), Fruitopia fruit drink and Dasani water, among others.

In 2004, perhaps in response to the burgeoning popularity of low-carbohydrate diets such as the Atkins Diet, Coca-Cola announced its intention to develop and sell a low-carbohydrate alternative to Coke Classic, dubbed C2 Cola. C2 contains a mix of high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, sucralose, and Acesulfame potassium. C2 is designed to more closely emulate the taste of Coca-Cola Classic. Even with less than half of the food energy and carbohydrates of standard soft drinks, C2 is not a replacement for zero-calorie soft drinks such as Diet Coke. C2 went on sale in the U.S. on June 11, 2004, and in Canada in August 2004. C2's future is uncertain due to disappointing sales.

Coca-Cola is the best-selling soft drink in most countries. Nevertheless, there are some places like Quebec and Prince Edward Island, Canada, where Pepsi is the market leader.^{[citation needed]} In the Middle East, the only region in the world where Coca-Cola is not the number one soda drink, Coca-Cola nonetheless holds almost 25% marketshare (to Pepsi's 75%) and had double-digit growth in 2003.^[5] Similarly, in Scotland, where the locally produced Irn-Bru was once more popular, 2005 figures show that both Coca-Cola and Diet Coke now outsell Irn-Bru.^[6]

Some claim Coke is less popular in India due to suspicions regarding the health standards of the drink. However, marketshare data does not back this view. Specifically, in 2005, Coca-Cola India's market share was 60.9%.^[7]

The Coca-Cola Company owns numerous brands and trademarks. Probably the most well-known besides Coca-Cola, Coke, and their various spin-offs are Sprite, Fanta, Tab, Minute Maid, Fruitopia, Powerade, Dasani, Barq's and Mello Yello (see Coca-Cola brands).