The Coca-Cola Co is set to report its first-quarter results on Tuesday (17 April). Here, just-drinks takes a look at highs and lows for the company in the three months to the end of March.
- The quarter got off to a difficult start for Coca-Cola, when it found itself fending off accusations it was financially supporting Swaziland dictator King Mswati III. Democracy activists in the country said the drinks giant gave Mswati the economic strength to quell opposition because it was responsible for as much as 40% of the country’s GDP.
- On a more positive note, Coca-Cola chairman Muhtar Kent said at the end of January that the company hopes to create 100,000 new jobs over the next ten years. Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Kent said the jobs boost would be part of renewed growth and investment, particularly in emerging markets.
- That wasn’t the only talking Kent was doing in Davos. A few days later, Mexico’s President, Felipe Calderón, announced Coca-Cola would spend US$1bn in Mexico in 2012. The deal is part of Coca-Cola’s five-year spending plan in the country.
- On 7 February, Coca-Cola executives said they were “bullish” on both the year ahead and North America. The comments followed a 5% rise in global group volume sales for calendar 2011.
- Coca-Cola’s Olympic marketing drive rumbled into life when in mid-February the company previewed a television advert that forms part of its 2012 Games campaign. Expect a lot more from where that came from in the next few months.
- The company’s commitment to emerging markets was highlighted at the end of last month when it opened its 42nd, and biggest so far, bottling plant in China. The site is expected to produce 5bn servings a year.