Coke buying most of bottler CCE

By Jeremiah McWilliams

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Coca-Cola Co. has reached a  deal to buy most of its largest bottler, Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Enterprises, the company announced Thursday morning.

Coke is buying CCE’s North American operations as part of a strategy to gain more control over product distribution as it fights a slow slide in soda sales in the United States and Canada. The deal could be worth more than $15 billion including assumed debt, The Wall Street Journal reported.

CCE has thousands of employees in the Atlanta area and more than 70,000 total. Coca-Cola, also based in Atlanta, already owns about 35 percent of CCE.

"I've been hearing buzz all week about a Coke system deal," said John Sicher, editor of Beverage Digest, Wednesday night. "If this were to happen, it's a reflection of the need for more route-to-market flexibility in North America."

The deal is  a reversal of Coca-Cola's longstanding, oft-stated commitment to the "franchise" system under which Coke develops products and markets them while bottlers handle packaging and distribution. That system evolved during decades of strong soda sales growth through high-volume channels. Now, soda-makers are adding noncarbonated products such as waters and teas aimed at niche markets and may want more flexible distribution channels.