Distribution Business Articles

Coke feared 'serious risk' from Wal-Mart - Jun. 8, 2006: "Coca-Cola, fearing Wal-Mart would launch its own sports drink to rival the beverage giant's Powerade if it didn't agree to the retailer's new distribution terms, caved under the pressure and altered its own century-old supply system, a published report said Thursday. Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, asked Coke last year to switch to the straight-to-warehouse delivery method, and Coke's largest bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises (Research) (CCE), began doing so across much of the U.S. in April, the Wall Street Journal said. But according to June 1 court filing by Coke, the company stated that it faced a 'serious risk' of a Wal-Mart-branded rival to Powerade unless it abided by Wal-Mart's demands of direct distribution instead of having Coke (Research) bottlers deliver drinks to individual stores within their exclusive territories and stack those drinks on store shelves. The disclosure was made in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta against Coke and its largest bottler by 55 smaller bottlers, the paper said."