Coca Cola 2015 Annual Report Download - page 82

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Description of Business
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, as well as independent 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.
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 Coca-Cola
Refreshments ("CCR"), our bottling and customer service organization for the United States and Canada. Our Company-owned or -controlled bottling, sales
and distribution operations, other than CCR, are included in our Bottling Investments operating segment. CCR is included in our North America operating
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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