Millions of parts. One smooth machine.

Before our beverages can be enjoyed by a single consumer, they must be manufactured, marketed and merchandised for sale in customer outlets. This is the work of our bottling system. Ours is one of the largest consumer products systems in the world, with hundreds of thousands of employees and an estimated $80 billion in revenue.

We have renewed our focus on franchise leadership for mutual growth across the Coca-Cola system. We are strengthening our franchise partnerships with our bottlers through joint planning, collaborative investment, integrated marketing efforts, shared values and a sense of urgency and flexibility to meet consumers' ever-changing needs. In 2006, we made great strides in these areas, improving productivity and operational efficiencies and merchandising more effectively at the point of sale.

Most of our bottling partners are independent companies with operations in local communities around the world. In order to propel growth, we collaborate on the shared strategic vision that moves us closer to the marketplace, builds competitive advantages and makes us better trained and equipped to handle challenges wherever we do business. We are planning and investing together to create long-term sustainable growth for our system. For example, we are investing in new information technology that allows us to share expertise, get immediate feedback on new products and packages, and capture results and data in a consistent format. Together, such advances are improving operational effectiveness.

The Coca-Cola system sells, on average, 58 million unit cases of beverages every day.

In 2006, for the first time, we brought together our Company-owned bottlers into a single operating group called Bottling Investments. With a strong focus on customers, marketplace execution and capability development, the group has started to transform the performance of our Company-owned bottlers, achieving a significant improvement in operating income margin in 2006.