Coca-Cola, the world's largest soft drinks company, is planning to more than double its number of bottling plants in China over the coming decade, as part of the group's aims to triple the size of its sales to the country's rapidly emerging middle class.
Doug Jackson, president of Coca-Cola's China business unit, said the company also planned to distribute more than six times as many Coke-branded coolers to retailers, bars and restaurants in China over the coming decade, employing an expanded sales force to reach an additional 4.7m outlets.
“We are going to grow ahead of the rate of the industry,” he told investors in Atlanta last week, noting that China's sales of non-alcoholic packaged drinks were expected to triple to 30bn cases by 2020.