- Case
- Teaching Notes
The Coca-Cola Company, created in 1886, is the world’s largest beverage corporation, offering over 500 brands to consumers in 200 countries. The company’s revenues and profits have been dwindling over the last decade, due to the shrinking soda market, as consumers are turning away from sugary drinks, and cities are imposing soda taxes. While carbonated soft drinks (CSD) sales are declining, coffee consumption is on the rise. In August 2018, Coca-Cola decided to get a USD 5 billion shot of caffeine, and acquired the British coffeehouse Costa. The acquisition was finalized in January 2019, and now the U.S. beverage giant has access to almost 4,000 Costa stores in 32 countries. Coffee is the second most-traded global commodity after oil, and the United States is the largest coffee market in the world, with 450 million cups consumed daily. The possibilities are endless with Coke’s new global coffee platform, and the acquisition is likely to have a ripple effect for major coffee chains like Starbucks. What will transpire next?
