The Coca-Cola System

We are a global business that operates on a local scale, in every community where we do business. We are able to create global reach with local focus because of the strength of the Coca-Cola system, which comprises our Company and our bottling partners -- more than 300 worldwide.

While many view our Company as simply "Coca-Cola," our system operates through multiple local channels. Our Company manufactures and sells concentrates, beverage bases and syrups to bottling operations, owns the brands and is responsible for consumer brand marketing initiatives. Our bottling partners manufacture, package, merchandise and distribute the final branded beverages to our customers and vending partners, who then sell our products to consumers.

All bottling partners work closely with customers -- grocery stores, restaurants, street vendors, convenience stores, movie theaters and amusement parks, among many others -- to execute localized strategies developed in partnership with our Company. Customers then sell our products to consumers at a rate of 1.5 billion servings a day. Learn more about this unique relationship.

The Coca-Cola system is not a single entity from a legal or managerial perspective, and the Company does not own or control most of our bottling partners. In 2007, approximately 79 percent of our worldwide unit case volume was produced and distributed by bottling partners in which our Company had no ownership interest or a noncontrolling equity interest. To see our Company equity stake in our largest bottling partners, see our 2007 Annual Review, page 9.

In January 2006, our Company-owned bottling operations were brought together to form the Bottling Investments operating group, now the second-largest bottling partner in the Coca-Cola system in terms of unit case volume.

Coca-Cola Systemwide Performance
In April 2007, associates from The Coca-Cola Company and several of our largest bottling partners met for the first time to discuss the development of a core set of performance indicators for the Coca-Cola system. Working groups of Company associates and representatives from our bottling partners have been formed to determine the feasibility -- due to the legal and management complexity of the Coca-Cola system -- of collecting and consolidating economic and social data in addition to the environmental data already collected. Many of our bottling partners produce their own corporate responsibility reports which can be viewed in the Bottling Partner Reports section.