Franchise bottlers for Coca-Cola North America met in Atlanta last month to evaluate innovation and system marketing plans for 2020. The theme of the meeting was “Ready to Execute.” CCNA President Jim Dinkins reiterated that the system’s strategy is dependent on...

Coca-Cola-owned Honest Tea began rolling out a new ready-to-drink organic cold brew coffee last month at select West Coast food service accounts. Honest will expand US distribution in 2020 nationally to other food service outlets and large-format retail stores. The product was sampled last week at Expo East in Boston. Cold Brew is Honest’s first US coffee launch. More launch details...

The past year has been good for Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages (CCSWB). The Dallas-based bottler, controlled by Mexico’s Arca Continental, took home the 2019 Candler Cup as Coca-Cola’s best bottler of the year globally. Before that, CCSWB was named Coke North America’s 2018 Market Street Challenge winner as the most improved bottler. And Southwest’s McAllen, Texas production plant earned a President’s Quality Award as CCNA’s No. 1 facility. The accolades rolled in just two years after Arca entered the US market as part of Coke’s massive refranchising of company-owned bottling assets in the US and Canada. In its first year, CCSWB faced Hurricane Harvey, which caused extensive flooding and damage in Houston, a key market. The bottler also faced soaring commodity costs. BD visited Houston recently for a curated market tour that served as a victory lap of sorts. The day was hosted by Coke Southwest executives including COO Jean Claude Tissot, a 21-year veteran of the Coca- Cola system in Latin America. The following recap includes images from the tour and commentary...

PepsiCo brought together executives from its US bottling system in August to review new product and marketing plans for 2020. The company hosted the meeting at its Purchase, New York headquarters. Attendees included company-owned and independent franchise bottling executives. The gathering came six months after PepsiCo reorganized its North America beverage business into five divisions, four in the US and one in Canada. The meeting’s theme was...

A 100% stevia-sweetened variant of Coca-Cola first launched in New Zealand has moved closer to the US. The product, called Coca-Cola Stevia, gets prominent billing on...

Coca-Cola’s Dasani brand has overhauled the technology behind its PureFill water dispenser to accelerate the machine’s push into the office and institutional market. The first-generation PureFill, launched...

The ride-sharing economy created by Uber and Lyft has produced opportunities for beverage makers beyond mere app-based restaurant food deliveries...

During the first half of this year, ready-to-drink tea sales by volume at US retail declined for all four of the largest producers as the category overall...

Coca-Cola is fast at work on a plan to compete more directly with...