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BOTTLERS STAND UP TO RETAIL'S CALL FOR CHANGE
Andrew Ward

For soft drink aficionados stepping inside a Coca-Cola bottling plant is the equivalent of Charlie Bucket visiting Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Caramel-coloured froth bubbles from the top of a tall tank, filling the air with the sweet smell of cola, while a blur of red cans are pumped full of the fizzy liquid at a rate of 2,000 a minute.
The location is College Park, Georgia, a few miles from where John Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist, invented Coke's «secret formula» in 1886. Mr Pemberton sold the formula to a businessman who built a nationwide network of bottlers to produce and distribute the drink.
Nearly 120 years later, Coke remains wedded to that original model, relying on hundreds of independent bottling companies to get its products to market.
In the past few months, however, a damaging rift has opened between Coke and many of its US bottlers.
More than 50 bottlers last month filed a lawsuit against Coke and Coca-Cola enterprises (CCE), the largest US bottler, over a dispute about how Coke's PowerAde sports drink is distributed to Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer.

Smaller bottlers are furious about plans by CCE 36 per cent owned by Coke to make deliveries to Wal-Mart warehouses rather than direct to stores.
It may be hard for outsiders to understand why an arcane distribution arrangement is rousing such passion. But to smaller bottlers, many family-owned enterprises that have served Coke for generations, warehouse delivery represents a threat to their way of doing business. Small bottlers take pride in their strong relationships with the stores they serve. A typical large supermarket is visited twice a day by its local bottler.
Warehouse delivery, in contrast, gives bottlers a smaller role, with the retailer taking over responsability for distributing to individual stores.
Some bottlers fear the PowerAde move is the start of a broader shift away from direct-to-store delivery.
Coke and CCE insist there are no plans to expand warehouse delivery beyond PowerAde. But they say bottlers must be prepared to adapt to changing needs.
Consumer concern about health and obesity has forced Coke to diversify from sugary cola into noncarbonated drinks, such as PowerAde. This has complicated bottlers' businesses and weakened Coke's dominance of a fragmenting beverage market.

The retail sector, meanwhile, has been consolidatting among a handful of large chains, led by Wal-Mart, which accounts for about 10 per cent of Coke's US sales.
These trends have shifted bargaining power away from Coke and its bottlers towards retailers. Wal-Mart's growing leverage is at the heart of Coke's wrangle with bottlers because it was the retailer that requested warehouse delivery of PowerAde.
Analysts say Wal-Mart can increase efficiency by reducing the number of deliveries its suppliers make to stores.
Some analysts believe the dispute will encourage Coke to push for a fresh round of consolidation among smaller bottlers or even to take control of the network.

ROBERT ANDERSON
Tratto dal «Financial Times» del 27 marzo


  • Bargaining power: potere contrattuale
  • Beverage market: mercato delle bibite
  • Bottlers: imbottigliatori
  • Bottling companies: aziende d'imbottigliamento
  • Bottling plant: stabilimento d'imbottigliamento
  • Businessman: imprenditore
  • Can: lattina
  • Chains: catene
  • Consolidation: unione, fusione
  • Direct-to-store delivery: consegna diretta ai negozi
  • Dispute: controversia
  • Distribution arrangement: organizzazione della distrib
  • Enterprise: impresa
  • Family-owned enterprises: imprese a conduzione familiare
  • (to) File a lawsuit: avviare un'azione legale
  • Fizzy: frizzante, gassato
  • Large supermarket: supermercato di grandi dimensioni
  • Leverage: influenza
  • Location: ubicazione
  • (to) Make deliveries: effettuare le consegne
  • Noncarbonated drinks: bevande non gassate/non addizionate di anidride carbonica (carbon dioxide)
  • Retailer: rivenditore al dettaglio, dettagliante
  • Sales: vendite
  • Soft drink: bevanda analcolica, bibita
  • Sports drink: bevanda per gli sportivi/bevanda sportiva
  • Sugary cola: bevande alla cola con zucchero
  • Warehouse delivery: consegna da magazzino