Coke Plans New US Brands in 4th Quarter.
More Regional Introductions.
Will Test Coffee Drink in US.

Coke president Jack Stahl says company "working very hard" to regionalize business in US. Says: "You'll see many more regional product introductions in the latter part of this year." Says, for example, company will use Fanta as "local brand in certain parts of the country such as south Texas and southern California where we have the strong possibility to build the brand with Hispanic consumers." Coke CEO Doug Daft and Stahl talk to Wall Street analysts in July 19 conference call. Re new brands, Stahl says, "you're going to see some examples of that in the 4th quarter of this year." Work on Sprite. Addressing declining volume/share performance (BD 6/30/00), Stahl notes: "We do have some work to do on Sprite, which we're getting right as we speak."

Growth. Coke says 2nd quarter North American growth was about +1%. Stahl calls it slower "than I anticipated." Declares "effect of retail pricing on bottle/can business was more significant than expected." Adds, "thankfully" fountain's "strong growth" of +5% "is holding up our North American business." Though immediate consumption business up +10%, supermarket prices increases of +5% "is holding back volume growth." Discover can. Pop-top can promotion "is driving Coke Classic growth of about +5% in last five weeks." Intense. Stahl: "You'll see the most intense marketing pressure we've ever seen in the US (in 2nd half)." New ads. Stahl confirms new ads for Coke Classic using humor break soon in US (BD 6/16/00).

Coke coffee. Separately -- and not covered in conference call -- knowledgeable source tells BD Coke plans to start four-market fountain test in August of new coffee beverage called, "Cafielle." Product will be "smoothie-type" coffee drink, "like a milk shake," says source. Two flavors likely. Source says "focus now is on fountain."