As a principal sponsor of FIFA, Coca-Cola is keen to trade in on the World Cup's image of fair play and good sportsmanship. But many believe its business practices make a mockery of this reputation.
View Always Coca Cola - India. Video hosted on Youtube. For thirsty fans at the World Cup, there's only one choice of soft drink available. Whether it's Coke, Sprite or Bonaqua, all the brands on sale belong to coca-cola. Many of theses drinks are produced in India, where Coca-Cola's business practices have elicited widespread condemnation. "The coca cola factory ruined my life," despairs one farmer. Producing 0.33L of coke requires 1L of water. In some villages near cola factories, water levels have dropped by 60m. Harvests have fallen by more than 40% because there is not enough water to irrigate fields. But Coca-Cola denies all responsibility. "We are not the problem", states spokesman Rajiv Singh. "There are simply too many people living here who are wasteful with water." Coca-cola also stands accused of pollution and union busting. Many workers in their factories receive around 50 cents for a 12 hour shift. They have no unions and sometimes receive no compensation for injuries sustained. As Bhagwab Das Yadav states: "All we want is for coca cola to respect India's labour laws."
The Coca-Cola Company is a beverage company and the world leader in soft drink sales. Coca-Cola produces and distributes several brands in the United States and internationally. The company also produces and markets many fruit juices and other nonsoda beverages. The Coca-Cola Company is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Coca-Colas soft drinks include its flagship product Coca-Cola (popularly known as Coke), Diet Coke, Tab, Sprite, Fanta, Fresca, Mello Yello, and Barqs root beer. The companys nonsoda beverages include Minute Maid fruit juices, PowerAde sports drinks, and Nestea iced tea drinks.
Coca-Cola traces its origins to 1886 when John Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist who developed patent medicines, created a drink from carbonated water, cane sugar syrup, caffeine, and extracts of kola nuts and coca leaves. Pemberton found the drink both medicinal and refreshing, and he sought to market it. His bookkeeper, Frank M. Robinson, suggested the name Coca-Colaafter the two extracts in the ingredientsand also wrote the products name in distinctive script. Coca-Cola has used that same logo ever since. Pemberton and Robinson also coined the drinks first slogan, Delicious and Refreshing.
Pemberton, however, was ill, and he would not live to see his products success. In their first year selling Coke, he and his partners made only $50. Pemberton sold two-thirds of his business in 1888 to cover his losses and keep the business afloat. He died later that year and Asa Candler, an Atlanta wholesale druggist, purchased total interest in Coca-Cola for $2300 in 1891. The next year Candler and his brother, John; Frank Robinson; and two associates formed the Coca-Cola Co.
In 1986 The Coca-Cola Company consolidated all of its nonfranchised U.S. bottling operations as Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. The new company began acquiring independent bottling companies, a venture that grew into the worlds largest bottler of soft drinks by 1988. While Coca-Cola Enterprises distributes over half of all Coca-Cola products in the United States, small franchise businesses continue to bottle, can, and distribute the companys drinks worldwide.
In 1987 the Coca-Cola Company was listed in the prestigious Dow Jones Industrial Averages (see Dow Jones Averages) index of stock market performance (for the second time, it had also been listed briefly in the 1930s). Its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo products occupied nine of the top ten spots in the U.S. soft drink market in the mid-1990s. Worldwide, Coca-Cola ranked first in soft drink sales, and the company earned almost 80 percent of its profits from international sales.
(from Journeyman Pictures)
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