North America Refranchising Plan On Track for 2017 Completion
Coca-Cola Bottlers in North America continue to make investments with The Coca-Cola Company that will shape our system for long-term success. New Definitive Agreements and transaction completions for territory and production plants across the US continue and remain on track to complete refranchising of all U.S. territories by the end of 2017.
Coca-Cola Refreshments executives Paul Mulligan and Fran McGorry are joining together to form a new bottling company called Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages LLC. They have signed a letter of intent for territories that include metropolitan New York, Philadelphia, most of the state of New Jersey and part of Delaware, plus four production facilities. This area is known as the Tri-State Metro Operating Unit of Coca-Cola Refreshments, which is a unit of The Coca-Cola Company. Both executives are experienced veterans of the Coca-Cola system.
Fran McGorry is president of the Tri-State Metro Operating Unit, who has also served as president of the Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Co. He is a native of Philadelphia and has strong, local connections throughout the Tri-State area. Paul Mulligan has served as president of Coca-Cola Refreshments since 2014. His previous experience in the Coca-Cola System includes leadership roles in operations around the world. Both Fran and Paul will be co-owner of the new Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages. The next step is a definitive agreement, followed by a closing.
Following are highlights of key transactions since Q4 2016:
Heartland Coca-Cola Bottling Co. (Kansas City, MO), completed its transaction for territory in parts of Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, including the cities of St. Louis and Kansas City; and a production facility in Lenexa, KS. |
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 Arca Continental (AC) of Monterrey, Mexico, closed their transaction on March 31st to establish Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages, LLC. The newly formed Bottler will serve a large area of the Southwest United States, including Texas and parts of Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arkansas. This region includes nine production facilities. The Coca-Cola Company will be a minority owner of AC Bebidas, which includes Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages as well as AC’s beverage operations elsewhere in Latin America. |
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 Timber Country Coca-Cola Beverages (Roseburg, OR) closed their acquisition of two new counties (Siskiyou and Del Norte) in northern California. Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Roseburg / Douglas County Bottling recently adopted this new title and logo to more closely reflect the new regional size of their distribution area, and where they live, the timber capitol of the nation. |
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 Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated, (Charlotte, NC), completed two closings. The first involved territory in Louisa, Kentucky, and in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, including a production facility in Cincinnati. The second, for territory in Fort Wayne, Lafayette, Anderson, Terre Haute and South Bend, IN. CCBCC also entered into a Letter of Intent (LOI) with TCCC, that anticipates exchanging certain of its exclusive distribution rights and associated assets and working capital relating to the distribution, promotion, marketing and sale of beverage products owned and licensed by The Coca-Cola Company and certain cross-licensed brands located in south-central KY currently served by the CCBCC’s distribution center located in Somerset, Kentucky — for certain like-kind assets of Coca-Cola Refreshments USA. CCBC Consolidated also signed definitive agreements to further expand their distribution territory within parts of northern OH. Link to press release for more information. |
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 Great Lakes Coca-Cola Distribution LLC, (GLCC), (Rosemont, IL), reached a Definitive Agreement and closed on territory in eastern Michigan, including a production facility in Detroit. GLCC ‘s Definitive Agreement for the production facility in Grand Rapids is expected to also close soon.  Separately Reyes Holdings (owner of Great Lakes Coca-Cola Distribution) has reached a new letter of intent with The Coca-Cola Company for territory in California and Nevada, including the major metropolitan markets of Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Las Vegas. The letter of intent involves the West Operating Unit of Coca-Cola Refreshments, which is part of The Coca-Cola Company. Reyes Holdings already has extensive operations in California and Nevada, including Reyes Beverage Group, the largest beer distribution operation in the United States, and The Martin-Brower Company LLC, a global food service distributor servicing McDonald’s and other high-quality brands. With the addition of more territory, Reyes Holdings,will serve as a Coca-Cola Bottler in parts of eight states. |
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 ABARTA Coca-Cola (Pittsburgh, PA) transferred two  territories — Cleveland, OH to Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated and Buffalo, NY, to Coca-Cola of Northern New England (Bedford, NH) ahead of its current expansion, announced previously. |
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 Swire Coca-Cola, USA, completed its transaction for territories in Oregon, including the acquisition of four sales and distribution centers and one production facility in the state. Swire had recently reached definitive agreements for additional territory in the Pacific Northwest, including most of Washington, parts of Idaho and most of Oregon. These agreements also include a production facility in Bellevue, WA, in addition to Wilsonville, OR. Swire Coca-Cola’s operation of the territories commenced April 29th and continues to build its growing footprint in the US. Swire is now operating in 13 western states. |
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 Middlesboro Coca-Cola Bottling (Middlesboro, KY) reached a Letter of Intent for additional territory in Somerset, KY. Previously, this territory had transitioned to Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated. |
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 Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED (Birmingham, AL) closed their transaction for additional territory in Georgia, including Atlanta, Athens, Dublin, Gainesville, Jasper, Lawrenceville, Macon and Rome, along with production facilities in Marietta and College Park, GA.
 This acquisition, which includes Coca-Cola Company’s headquarters, increases UNITED’s overall size by about 40 percent, and adds 2,000 employees. CCBCU has already added about 200 new jobs and plans to invest $25 million this year on the Atlanta-area’s equipment, facilities and delivery fleet. In the next few years, it plans to spend another $100 million in local capital investments in Atlanta. |
These agreements are all in-step with a plan to refranchise all of The Coca-Cola Company’s U.S. bottling territories by the end of this year. Ultimately, our Coca-Cola system in North America will be comprised of economically aligned bottling partners that have the capability to serve major customers, coupled with the ability to maintain strong, local ties across diverse markets in the United States and Canada.
Including the Tri-State Metro Operating Unit, the Company has reached definitive agreements or signed letters of intent to refranchise bottling territories that account for approximately 80% of total U.S. bottler-delivered distribution volume, which equates to approximately 90% of total Coca-Cola Refreshments volume in North America. With this new letter of intent, 100% of the U.S. territory of CCR is under agreement. The Company also has reached definitive agreements or signed letters of intent for all 51 cold-fill production facilities in the United States. The Tri-State Metro Operating Unit has production facilities in Philadelphia, Moorestown, NJ, Maspeth, NY, and Elmsford, NY.
