Tag Archives: Coke

Coca-Cola UK Introduces Attached Bottle Caps

Everyone is familiar with the content feeling of walking through smooth, silky sand at the beach only to be suddenly irked by stepping on something hard and painful. While it may sometimes be a seashell, often we stomp on all sorts of litter, frequently bottle caps.

As part of Coca-Cola’s “World Without Waste” initiative, the company’s UK branch has begun manufacturing new models of its plastic bottles. The new design features an attached cap, making it easier to recycle the whole piece and eliminate tossing the caps. The global initiative’s main mission is to collect and recycle one can or bottle for every one that they sell by 2030. It also aims to produce cans and bottles made of 50% recyclable material by 2030 and to offer 100% recyclable packaging by 2025.

Jon Woods, Coca-Cola Great Britain’s general manager, explained the new bottle design: “This is a small change that we hope will have a big impact, ensuring that when consumers recycle our bottles, no cap gets left behind.”

In addition to the pollution problem the loose caps pose, it is also an image concern for companies like Coke. The population notices the shorelines and landfills overflowing with these items, associating the trash with the company and negatively impacting their brand’s reputation. New regulations by the EU also require companies to attach the caps to some plastic bottles by the end of 2024.

While some environmentalists believe Coca-Cola should switch from plastic to reusable containers, the shift the UK spur is making in its bottle design is surely a step in the right direction.

Coke Adds Financial Stability

Once the Coca Cola advertising slogan was “Coke Adds Life.” For those looking for long term stability Coca Cola adds stability, dividends and profits. First of all, Coke gives a dividend of 3% per year which is certainly better than the current 2% for ten year treasury bonds. Also, the price of Coke stock has been rising over the last 5 years, even though it was brought down temporarily by the market drop in 2009 when it dropped to $40. Since then it has risen to $68 even with the recent market volatility.

Indeed, Coca Cola is a giant company which operates worldwide. Now they are planning to invest $3 billion into the Russian market and $4 billion into the Chinese market. Because the company is so big, I believe that the risk of investing in this company is limited. People have been drinking cola for a hundred years and will continue. Also, we see that the management has the skills to remain profitable. One of Coca Cola’s former executives, Segun Ogunsanya, started as an accountant in Ghana and was developed by the company until he become the manager of the whole area. He recently left the company to become the CEO of an African beverage manufacturer. It just shows that these large companies know how to develop management to ensure their success.

Their 50-day moving average is 68.34 and their 200-day moving average is 67.62. The stock is trading at 68.19 which is good for a down market. The companies trailing P/E is 12.54 which shows that the company is reasonably priced in relation to its earnings.

All stocks should be thoroughly analyzed before being purchased and should not be purchased on hearsay.

Coke Is, or Isn’t It?

Pepsi V Coke: Who’s Winning the Marketing War?

Pepsi may have just missed the marketing boat. On the marketing ladder, it just now dropped to the third run from its previous no. 2 position, having been hoisted out by Coke’s diet version. According to a recent article in AdAge, for the first time in 20 years, “PepsiCo ceded the soft-drink category’s two leading share positions to its legendary rival.”

Pepsi Still Pushing

But Pepsi won’t be taking this defeat lying down. As reported in another AdAge article, the company’s marketing executive picture is being shaken up a bit, with the addition of three positions and a replacement for its CMO-PepsiCo Beverages America position. But the question being asked is, is this the answer? Some suggest this restructuring is going to give Pepsi a more “global approach,” pumping up its worldwide market share. As well, it needs to work on its American market which, while it is there Pepsi has its biggest presence, it has “been losing ground.” Indeed just last year the beverage’s “share of the soft-drink market fell 0.4%, allowing Diet Coke to push past it as the second-biggest soft-drink brand in the U.S. Diet Pepsi saw its share tumble 0.3% last year, according to Beverage Digest.”

Coke and Pepsi: Tale of Two Tastes

This situation – the competition between Coke and PepsiCo – is not new. Both companies are up against the same marketing challenges and it was the former that realized the importance of brand-building as a long-term strategy. According to one executive close to PepsiCo, that company on the other hand, seems to have “gone into a tailspin, trying to reverse its fortunes overnight at any cost.” The consequence of this was the loss of its “best people, continuity, and ultimately, its direction.” Even though Coke has definitely also encountered its fair share of challenges too (in the 1980s it was the New Coke debacle; 1990s, Belgium contamination scare; and 2000s, big time layoffs and CEOs revolving cast), it seems that it’s ultimately Coke Was, Is and Always Will Be, It.