Supply Chain Management
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Due to the vast nature of the company’s operations and its several product lines spread throughout the world, we shall restrict the scope of this project towards the most important brand produced by the company, its flagship brand Coca-Cola. This section will entail a brief overview of the company’s supply chain.
The Coca-Cola Company follows a unique supply chain management system where the company only produces syrup concentrate which is then sold to various bottlers throughout the world who hold an exclusive territory. The Coca-Cola Company owns its anchor bottler in North America by the name of Coca-Cola Refreshments. Other Coca-Cola bottlers, who hold territorially exclusive contracts with the company, produce the finished product in cans and bottles from the concentrate in combination with filtered water and sweeteners. The bottlers then sell, distribute and merchandise the resulting Coca-Cola product to retail stores, vending machines, restaurants and food service distributors.
The Supply Chain of the company is divided into different levels. This report will mainly be focusing on the downstream activities of the product which entails partnerships with different bottlers, distributors and channels used to reach different retailers.
Upstream Activities
Upstream activities are limited to the manufacturing of the concentrate only. The actual formula Coca-Cola uses to manufacture the syrup is a very tightly held trade secret so there is little information regarding the exact ingredients and thus little information on the costs of their supplies. The original copy of the formula is held in SunTrust Bank's main vault in Atlanta. The company’s 2009 income statement revealed that the cost of goods sold was in excess of $10M [2] and the operating margin was around 25%. Sugar (sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup depending on country of origin) may be the largest known ingredient used in the manufacturing of the syrup and the company uses
Due to the vast nature of the company’s operations and its several product lines spread throughout the world, we shall restrict the scope of this project towards the most important brand produced by the company, its flagship brand Coca-Cola. This section will entail a brief overview of the company’s supply chain.
The Coca-Cola Company follows a unique supply chain management system where the company only produces syrup concentrate which is then sold to various bottlers throughout the world who hold an exclusive territory. The Coca-Cola Company owns its anchor bottler in North America by the name of Coca-Cola Refreshments. Other Coca-Cola bottlers, who hold territorially exclusive contracts with the company, produce the finished product in cans and bottles from the concentrate in combination with filtered water and sweeteners. The bottlers then sell, distribute and merchandise the resulting Coca-Cola product to retail stores, vending machines, restaurants and food service distributors.
The Supply Chain of the company is divided into different levels. This report will mainly be focusing on the downstream activities of the product which entails partnerships with different bottlers, distributors and channels used to reach different retailers.
Upstream Activities
Upstream activities are limited to the manufacturing of the concentrate only. The actual formula Coca-Cola uses to manufacture the syrup is a very tightly held trade secret so there is little information regarding the exact ingredients and thus little information on the costs of their supplies. The original copy of the formula is held in SunTrust Bank's main vault in Atlanta. The company’s 2009 income statement revealed that the cost of goods sold was in excess of $10M [2] and the operating margin was around 25%. Sugar (sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup depending on country of origin) may be the largest known ingredient used in the manufacturing of the syrup and the company uses