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Carefully read the following article about the early days of the…
Carefully read the following article about the early days of the Coca-Cola Company.
Write summary of this selection, including the main idea and at least three details that support it. The summary should be around 75-100 words long.
The Coca-Cola Company, an American corporation founded in 1892 and today engaged primarily in the manufacture and sale of syrup and concentrate for Coca-Cola, a sweetened carbonated beverage that is a cultural institution in the United States and a global symbol of American tastes. The company also produces and sells other soft drinks and citrus beverages. With more than 2,800 products available in more than 200 countries, Coca-Cola is the largest beverage manufacturer and distributor in the world and one of the largest corporations in the United States. Headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia.
The drink Coca-Cola was originated in 1886 by an Atlanta pharmacist, John S. Pemberton (1831-88), at his Pemberton Chemical Company. His bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, chose the name for the drink and penned it in the flowing script that became the Coca-Cola trademark. Pemberton originally touted his drink as a tonic for most common ailments, basing it on cocaine from the coca leaf and caffeine-rich extracts of the kola nut; the cocaine was removed from Coca-Cola’s formula in about 1903. Pemberton sold his syrup to local soda fountains, and, with advertising, the drink became phenomenally successful. By 1891 another Atlanta pharmacist, Asa Griggs Candler (1851-1929), had secured complete ownership of the business (for a total cash outlay of $2,300 and the exchange of some proprietary rights), and he incorporated the Coca-Cola Company the following year. The trademark “Coca-Cola” was registered in the U.S. Patent Office in 1893.
Under Candler’s leadership, sales rose from about 9,000 gallons of syrup in 1890 to 370,877 gallons in 1900. Also during that decade, syrup-making plants were established in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, and the product came to be sold in every U.S. state and territory as well as in Canada. In 1899 the Coca-Cola Company signed its first agreement with an independent bottling company, which was allowed to buy the syrup and produce, bottle, and distribute the Coca-Cola drink. Such licensing agreements formed the basis of a unique distribution system that now characterizes most of the American soft-drink industry. Capitalized at $100,000 in 1892 upon incorporation, the Coca-Cola Company was sold in 1919 for $25 million to a group of investors led by Atlanta businessman Ernest Woodruff. His son, Robert Winship Woodruff, guided the company as president and chairman for more than three decades (1923-55).
In 1978 Coca-Cola became the only company allowed to sell cold packaged beverages in the People’s Republic of China. In 1982 the company introduced its low-calorie sugar-free soft drink Diet Coke (originally named Diet Coca-Cola). In an effort to address its decline in market share, the company adopted a new flavour of Coca-Cola in April 1985, using a formula it developed through taste tests. New Coke was not well received, however. Owing to the public outcry, Coca-Cola revived its original flavour in July, which was then marketed as Coca-Cola Classic. From 1982 to 1989 the company held a controlling interest in Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., a motion-picture and entertainment company.
New markets opened up for Coca-Cola in the early 1990s; the company began selling products in East Germany in 1990 and in India in 1993. In 1992 the company introduced its first bottle made partially from recycled plastica major innovation in the industry at the time. Coca-Cola created many new beverages during the 1990s, including the Asia-marketed Qoo children’s fruit drink, Powerade sports drink, and Dasani bottled water. Coca-Cola also acquired Barq’s root beer in the United States; Inca Kola in Peru; Maaza, Thums Up, and Limca in India; and Cadbury Schweppes beverages, which were sold in more than 120 countries across the globe.
In the early 2000s Coca-Cola faced allegations of illegal soil and water pollution, as well as allegations of severe human rights violations. In 2001 the United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) filed a lawsuit against Coca-Cola and Bebidas y Alimentos and Panamerican Beverages, Inc. (also known as Panamco LLC; the primary bottlers of Coca-Cola’s beverages in Latin America), claiming that the defendants had openly engaged so-called “death squads” to intimidate, torture, kidnap, and even murder union officials in Latin America. The controversy gained worldwide attention and led several American universities to ban the sale of Coca-Cola products on their campuses. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed.
In 2005 the company introduced Coca-Cola Zero, a zero-calorie soft drink with the taste of regular Coca-Cola. In 2007 the company acquired Energy Brands, Inc., along with its variously enhanced waters. That same year Coca-Cola announced that it would join the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR), a group of companies working together to develop and implement corporate responses to human rights issues that affect the business world.
