Tech & Biz

Coca-Cola to invest $2 billion in China

by JeffHuang | March 6, 2009 at 11:19 am

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Coca-Cola plans to invest two billion dollars in China over the next three years which will more than double the 1.6 billion dollars it has spent in China since 1979. This move will increase its presence in the world's largest market as coca-cola plans to invest 90-million dollars in research and development with 600 staff developing new products.

The 90-million dollars in research and development is to expand its product lines to accomodate the 1.3 billion people in China with beverages such as sparkling drinks, teas and juices which is expected to grow at a pace of more than 16 percent in the coming years.

"The Coca-Cola Company will continue to invest another two billion dollars in the next three years in terms of new plant and distribution infrastructure, sales and marketing, and R and D (research and development)," company president Muhtar Kent said.

It was the second major announcement Coca Cola has made in China in six months.

Coca-Cola is awaiting Chinese government approval for its proposed 2.4-billion-dollar takeover of Hong Kong-listed China Huiyuan Juice Group, which was made public in September.

The investment move by Coca-Cola can be seen as a response to its rival, PepsiCo's recent usage of real sugar announcement with "Pepsi Throwback" and "Mountain Dew Throwback". The drinks will be made with real sugars instead of HFCS which will only be available between April 20 and June 13.

Around the same time, Coca-Cola usually rolls out limited-edition Kosher for Passover Coke, also made with real sugar since observant Jews cannot have corn products, hence no HFCS. Many non-Jews celebrate the product as well, believing the sugar version is superior (whether for taste or health reasons).

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mtammas

at 16:51 on March 6th, 2009

Oh, good, Coca-Cola's going to spend massive amounts of money in yet another country where labour legislation and environmental protections are minimal and the potential for huge profits looms large at the expense of a population's health.