BD will soon publish 2019 all-channel sales data for the US liquid refreshment beverage (LRB) market, including both packaged and fountain products. The tables below and on page 2 provide a preliminary look at the results for last year...

Late last year, Coca-Cola Bottling United opened a new $86 million sales and distribution center in the metro Atlanta town of Union City, just south of Coca-Cola headquarters. The 456,000-sq-ft facility serves 10,000 retail customers in metro Atlanta, covering 2.8 million consumers. As many as 750 employees will manage the warehousing, picking and delivery of 36 million beverage cases per year. Manual order picking has been converted to an automated process built by System Logistics. Marketed as “Vertique,” the system is “an organized, more ergonomic and efficient sequential operation, with less stress on associates and not as labor intensive,” according to Coke United (click HERE for a video of the system). The Union City facility is among a series of investments by Coke United to modernize its distribution system since acquiring new territory, including Coke’s flagship metro Atlanta market in 2017. Last month, Coke United broke ground for construction of a $60 million, 300,000-sq-ft warehouse and sales center in the South Georgia town of Tifton, about an hour’s drive from the Georgia-Florida line. The facility will consolidate inventory from eight older and smaller facilities into a single automated order picking location when it opens by the end of 2021. Birmingham, Alabama-based Coke United, with franchise roots dating back to 1902, covers territory in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. The company is Coca-Cola’s fourth largest US franchise bottler (after Coke Consolidated, Reyes Holdings and Arca’s Coke Southwest Beverages). United distributes 11% of Coca-Cola system bottle/can carbonated soft drink volume in US. Last week, Coke United CEO John Sherman and East Region VP Mike Succo joined officials at the new Union City center for a grand opening attended by Coca-Cola North America President Jim Dinkins. BD sat down for an interview with Sherman.

The following has been edited for clarity and space:

Globally, as in the US, the diet soda segment has performed better than the regular soda segment as consumers worldwide heed medical advice to reduce sugar consumption and governments tax sugar-sweetened drinks to discourage use. Volume sales for the diet soda segment globally in 2019...

The US sparkling water category grew in 2019, driven by the consumer shift to lower-sugar beverages with simpler ingredient panels. Here's a brand-level look and comprehensive data table detailing the category.

During a Jan. 30 conference call with Wall Street analysts to discuss Coca-Cola’s fourth-quarter earnings report, CEO James Quincey was asked about potential impacts from the Coronavirus outbreak in China. And in an interview, he discusses plans for Costa Coffee in the US...

Lipton Tea Divestiture? Unilever announced that it will consider selling its $3.3 billion global tea business, including the Lipton brand. The decision follows a shift in consumer demand away from black tea...

Kobe Bryant Tragedy. The Jan. 26 helicopter crash death of ex-NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, along with Bryant’s daughter and seven other people, hit close to home for Bodyarmor and the company’s minority investor, Coca-Cola...

Stevia-maker PureCircle named Peter Lai Hock Meng (pictured right) as its new CEO starting March 2. The appointment comes during an unresolved accounting probe dating back to mid-November...

Plus, people moves in the industry...

CSD Growth Decelerates. US Carbonated soft drink dollar sales grew +0.3% during the four weeks ending Jan. 25, according to Nielsen data published by Morgan Stanley. That was a deceleration from +1.4% growth in the prior 12-weeks. A -2.8% volume decline during the four weeks...