Coca Cola 2015 Annual Report Download - page 34

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General
The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest beverage company. We 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. We own and market four of the world's top five nonalcoholic sparkling beverage brands: Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite. Finished
beverage products bearing our trademarks, sold in the United States since 1886, are now sold in more than 200 countries.
We make our branded beverage products available to consumers throughout the world through our network of Company-owned or -controlled bottling and
distribution operations, bottling partners, distributors, wholesalers and retailers — the world's largest beverage distribution system. Beverages bearing
trademarks owned by or licensed to us account for more than 1.9 billion of the approximately 58 billion servings of all beverages consumed worldwide every
day.
We believe our success depends on our ability to connect with consumers by providing them with a wide variety of choices to meet their desires, needs and
lifestyle choices. Our success further depends on the ability of our people to execute effectively, every day.
Our goal is to use our Company's assets — our brands, financial strength, unrivaled distribution system, global reach, and the talent and strong commitment
of our management and associates — to become more competitive and to accelerate growth in a manner that creates value for our shareowners.
Our Company markets, manufactures and sells:
• beverage concentrates, sometimes referred to as "beverage bases," and syrups, including fountain syrups (we refer to this part of our business as our
"concentrate business" or "concentrate operations"); and
• finished sparkling and still beverages (we refer to this part of our business as our "finished product business" or "finished product operations").
Generally, finished product operations generate higher net operating revenues but lower gross profit margins than concentrate operations.
In our concentrate operations, we typically generate net operating revenues by selling concentrates and syrups to authorized bottling and canning operations
(to which we typically refer as our "bottlers" or our "bottling partners"). Our bottling partners either combine the concentrates with sweeteners (depending on
the product), still water and/or sparkling water, or combine the syrups with sparkling water to produce finished beverages. The finished beverages are
packaged in authorized containers — such as cans and refillable and nonrefillable glass and plastic bottles — bearing our trademarks or trademarks licensed
to us and are then sold to retailers directly or, in some cases, through wholesalers or other bottlers. Outside the United States, we also sell concentrates for
fountain beverages to our bottling partners who are typically authorized to manufacture fountain syrups, which they sell to fountain retailers such as
restaurants and convenience stores which use the fountain syrups to produce beverages for immediate consumption, or to authorized fountain wholesalers
who in turn sell and distribute the fountain syrups to fountain retailers.
Our finished product operations consist primarily of Company-owned or -controlled bottling, sales and distribution operations, including CCR. Until
December 31, 2015, our Company-owned or -controlled bottling, sales and distribution operations, other than CCR, were included in our Bottling
Investments operating segment; and CCR was included in our North America operating segment. Effective January 1, 2016, we transferred CCR's bottling
and associated supply chain operations in the United States and Canada from our North America segment to our Bottling Investments segment. Our finished
product operations generate net operating revenues by selling sparkling beverages and a variety of still beverages, such as juices and juice drinks, energy and
sports drinks, ready-to-drink teas and coffees, and certain water products, to retailers or to distributors, wholesalers and bottling partners who distribute them
to retailers. In addition, in the United States, we manufacture fountain syrups and sell them to fountain retailers such as restaurants and convenience stores
who use the fountain syrups to produce beverages for immediate consumption or to authorized fountain wholesalers or bottling partners who resell the
fountain syrups to fountain retailers. In the United States, we authorize wholesalers to resell our fountain syrups through nonexclusive appointments that
neither restrict us in setting the prices at which we sell fountain syrups to the wholesalers nor restrict the territories in which the wholesalers may resell in the
United States.
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