Coca-Cola to invest US$ 852 mi in Brazil in 2008
O Estado de S. Paulo - 02/14/2008
With a sales volume growth of 16% compared to the previous year - most of it due to the acquisitions of Del Valle, juice manufacturer, and Matte Leão, teas -, the Coca-Cola Brazil system ended 2007 with the sale of 8.53 billion liters of beverages and sales of R$ 12 billion (US$ 6.8 billion), a 20% growth. The company has also announced that it will invest R$ 1.5 billion (US$ 852.3 million) in the Country this year. "It is the best performance of Brazil in the last three years", said the company's CEO in the Country Brian Smith. In 2006, Coca-Cola Brazil had already grown 9% in relation to the previous year. The 2007 result deserves even more emphasis, in Smith's opinion, because "it happens at a moment in which the company is growing in general". The sales volume of Coca-Cola in the world in 2007 went 6% up. Last year, the company sold US$ 28.8 billion, 20% more than the previous year. One of the reasons for the good performance in Brazil, in the evaluation of the marketing vice-president of the company, Marisol Angelini, is the current portfolio abundance. "Three years ago we had between 40 and 50 products. Currently, we have more than 150" he says. AmBev, the partner of PepsiCo and owner of the soft drink Guaraná Antarctica, among other carbonated beverages, increased its market share from 17.1% market, in 2006, to 17.5% in 2007. Coca-Cola, on its turn, went form 54.6% to 55.9%. Some believe Coke will soon bring its most recent product to the Country, the vitamin water that acquired in the USA for US$ 4.1 billion last year. There are also speculations on the possibility of Coca-Cola's selling its brand of energy drink in Brazil, Powerades leader in the USA, to compete with the Pepsi's Gatorade.