Additional bottling territory for Swire Coca-Cola
The Coca-Cola Company announced that it plans to grant additional territories to Swire Coca-Cola, USA, including the cities of Seattle, Spokane, WA, Portland, OR, and a wide area of the Pacific Northwest.
Swire Coca-Cola, USA, a subsidiary of Swire Pacific Limited’s Beverages Division, has signed a letter of intent with The Coca-Cola Company for Swire to expand its existing territories in the United States to include parts of Washington, Idaho and Oregon and to acquire cold-fill production facilities in Bellevue, WA, near Seattle, and in Wilsonville, OR, near Portland.
The letter of intent is part of Coca-Cola North America’s ongoing and accelerated implementation of a 21st Century Beverage Partnership Model, a broad initiative aimed at building on system capabilities to sustain success.
The Company has also reached a Definitive Agreement with Great Lakes Coca-Cola Distribution, LLC, a Reyes Holdings company based in Rosemont, Ill., for additional territories in Wisconsin, MN, Illinois, MI and Iowa. A letter of intent for these territories was previously announced. The Coca-Cola Company began working with its bottling partners a decade ago on plans to develop a model that evolves the system to serve the changing customer and consumer landscape, with a focus on creating stronger system alignment. A critical step was the Company’s acquisition of the North American territories of Coca-Cola Enterprises in 2010.
In the five years since the deal was closed, The Coca-Cola Company has accelerated the implementation of the new model by strategically addressing the bottling system, customer service, product supply and a common information technology platform. Ultimately, the Coca-Cola system in North America will be comprised of economically aligned bottling partners that have the capability to serve major customers, coupled with the ability to maintain strong, local ties across diverse markets in the US and Canada.
So far, the Company has reached definitive agreements or signed letters of intent to refranchise territories that account for approximately 45% of bottler-delivered distribution volume in the US.
The new transactions announced are subject to The Coca-Cola Company and Swire Coca-Cola, USA reaching definitive agreements. The parties are committed to working together to implement a smooth transition with minimal disruption for customers, consumers and system associates. Financial terms are not being disclosed.
