Coca-Cola is helping China select torchbearers and escort runners for the Beijing Olympics.

In August, Coca-Cola launched two bottling plants in China’s eastern Jiangxi Province and the northwestern Xinjiang province, which made the total number of Coca-Cola’s factories in China reach 37.

Coca-Cola entered China in 1928. In the same year, Coca-Cola became the Chinese Olympic delegation’s sponsor.

Now, the world’s largest beverage company, which recently launched an $80 million global research center and new China headquarters in Shanghai, is planning to boost investment in sales infrastructure and product range in the country, a market that could become Coca-Cola’s largest, the company says.

Doug Jackson, who became president of Coca-Cola China in April, said, ‘Our goal in the next few years is to sustain the current strong growth momentum. The non-alcohol drink market grows by 14 to 15% a year in China, and we hope we can outdo the average market performance to increase our sales volume and market share. We are also planning to expand our product range and provide more choices for our customers.

‘We believe that China could become the largest market for Coca-Cola, however, it is hard to predict when it will happen, but it certainly will. Our long-term vision is to make China our largest market.’

And one way of making the vision happen is spending a considerable amount of its marketing budget on the Olympics.
Source: China Daily