coca cola develops the african market case study

Coca-Cola in Africa: a long history full of unexpected twists and turns

Senior Lecturer in Critical Writing, University of Pennsylvania

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Sara Byala does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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A new book called Bottled: How Coca-Cola Became African tells the story of how the world’s most famous carbonated drink conquered the continent. It’s a tale of marketing gumption and high politics and is the product of years of research by critical writing lecturer Sara Byala , who researches histories of heritage , sustainability and the ways in which capitalist systems intersect with social and cultural forces in Africa. We asked her some questions about the book.

What do you hope readers will take away?

There are three main takeaways. The first is that while Africa is largely absent from books on Coca-Cola, the company’s imprint on the continent is enormous. It is present in every nation. Most estimates put Coke as one of the largest private employers in Africa, if not the largest. Beyond official jobs, the company has been shown to have a multiplier effect that means that for each official job, upwards of 10 other people are supported.

The second takeaway is that Coke’s story in Africa is an old one. It starts with its use of the west African kola nut , from which it takes its name (if no longer its source of caffeine ). Arriving in Africa in the early 1900s, it’s a story that is deeply and, often surprisingly, entangled with key moments in African history. This includes the end of apartheid in South Africa and the advent of postcolonial African nations.

Third, I want readers to see that while we may assume that a multinational company selling carbonated, sugary water is inherently a force for ill, both the history of Coke in Africa and my fieldwork suggest a far more complicated story. Coca-Cola is what it is today in Africa, I argue, because it became local. It bent to the will of Africans in everything from sport to music to healthcare . Its ubiquity thus tells us something about African engagement with a consumer product as well as the many ways in which ordinary people wield power.

How did Coca-Cola first arrive in Africa?

Coca-Cola doesn’t export a finished product from its corporate headquarters in the US. It sells a concentrate , which comes from a handful of locations around the globe, including Egypt and Eswatini. This concentrate is sold to licensed bottlers who then mix it with local forms of sugar and water before carbonating and bottling or canning it.

Coca-Cola lore says that the company first secured local bottlers for its concentrate in South Africa in 1928, its first stop on the African continent. By combing through old newspapers, archival documents, and pharmaceutical publications, however, I found evidence to suggest that Coke may in fact have been sold in 1909 in Cape Town as a short-lived soda fountain endeavour. This is just 23 years after the product was invented in Atlanta, Georgia.

It was neither easy nor assured that Coca-Cola would take off anywhere in the world upon its arrival. The early chapters of my book detail the often ingenious lengths that bottlers had to go to to get Coke off the ground. This included creating a new line of sodas to support the fledgling product called Sparletta . This includes green Creme Soda and Stoney ginger beer , both still available for purchase. Later chapters explore the routes by which the product spread across the continent, by detailing everything from the co-branding of petrol stations with Coca-Cola, to the rise of Coke beauty pageants, the birth of local forms of Coke advertising, the proliferation of Coca-Cola signage, and much more.

What role did it play in apartheid South Africa?

Coca-Cola was entrenched in South Africa before the advent of the racist, white minority apartheid state in 1948. While the company largely attempted to stay out of politics in South Africa, much as it did elsewhere in the world, it resisted certain “petty apartheid” rules. For example, the washrooms and lunchrooms in its plants were open to all ethnic groups, unlike the “whites only” facilities established under apartheid. A turning point came in the 1980s when, in tandem with activism in the US calling on the company to redress racial imbalances in America, the company was forced to reexamine its racial politics in South Africa as well.

What followed was perhaps the most interesting chapter in the story of Coca-Cola in Africa. Breaking with established precedent, the company took a stance against the apartheid state. Coca-Cola executive Carl Ware led the way here. Under his direction , the company crafted a unique form of disinvestment that enabled it to do what no other company managed: keep the products in the country while depriving the apartheid state of tax revenue. To do this, the company sold all its holdings to a separate business that continued to sell Cokes. It then moved its concentrate plant to neighbouring Eswatini, leaving Coca-Cola with no assets or employees in South Africa.

In part, this was possible because the company aligned itself with the African National Congress (ANC) , making a host of moves to help to end apartheid. These included meeting in secret with ANC leadership, funding clandestine meetings between the ANC and businesspeople, and setting up a charitable fund headed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu to support Black educational empowerment. In the book, I document these activities for the first time with extensive interviews and archival material.

It was during this era of disinvestment that Coca-Cola exploded within densely populated and remote parts of the country, providing on-ramps to economic participation for scores of South Africans that were later replicated with its global 5x20 project to empower women in business.

This spread in turn drove the consumption of liquid sugar to new heights, causing a host of other problems such as diabetes and dental cavities , which both the company and my book tackle too.

What I demonstrate in the book is that Coca-Cola’s shrewd positioning at the end of apartheid allowed it to emerge, in the post-apartheid landscape, ready not only to renew business in South Africa, but also to reinvigorate its presence on the continent at large. The question is how to weigh this spread (and its attendant benefits) against the costs.

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Coca‑Cola in Africa: 96 Years of Operations and Community Impact

Since making its African debut in 1928—when the first bottle of its flagship beverage was sold in South Africa—The Coca‑Cola Company has used the power of its brands and business to make a positive impact on the African continent. Coca‑Cola today is present in all 54 countries, with around 30 bottling partners, employing more than 50,000 people and embracing a local, community-focused approach to all aspects of business – from hiring, sourcing and manufacturing to sustainability programs and relationships with suppliers and customers.

Since the beginning, Coca‑Cola has contributed to local economies across Africa by creating a multiplier effect throughout its value chain and continually investing in the continent’s future—creating jobs, advancing social and economic opportunity at the local level and preserving the environment and its natural resources.

The company’s core values have always anchored its operations in Africa. In 1986, Coca‑Cola closed its offices in South Africa, divested its local business interests and established the $10 million Equal Opportunities Foundation to aid victims of apartheid and build a post-apartheid society through investments in education, housing and business development.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu praised the company as a model for other responsible corporations to follow. "Coca‑Cola has sought by its manner of disinvesting to empower blacks economically and to help us prepare for the post-apartheid South Africa," he wrote in a letter published by Daily Camera newspaper in 1989.

When Nelson Mandela was released from prison, that following year Coca‑Cola executive, Carl Ware was the first American businessperson to meet him. Company executives were invited to Nelson Mandela’s presidential office on his inauguration day in 1994 to celebrate Coca‑Cola’s official return to South Africa and returned 100 days later to affirm plans to "build a system that embraces the spirit of the new South Africa," according to Carl Ware. In the decades that followed, the company continued to partner with public and private sector entities to invest in initiatives focused on the continent’s most pressing priorities—including empowering women, providing access to safe drinking water and sanitation, and strengthening Africa’s health systems.

In addition to the long-standing history in South Africa, our company has a rich legacy of refreshing Africa and making a difference in numerous other countries. This includes Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco, and Kenya, where we have been operating for over 70 years. Here's a look at a few Coca‑Cola partnerships and programs that have made an impact in Africa:

The Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN)

In 2009, recognizing that more than 300 million people in Africa struggled due to the lack of water and sanitation, The Coca‑Cola Africa Foundation launched The Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN) with an ambitious goal: to improve access to water, sanitation and hygiene for 2 million people on the continent. After hitting its initial goal in 2015, RAIN expanded its target with a new $35 million investment to reach an additional 4 million people—which it achieved in 2021.

Through 120 projects managed by the Global Environment & Technology Foundation, RAIN has positively impacted homes, schools and healthcare clinics in more than 4,000 communities. The collective effort of more than 300 international and local public, private and civil society partners improved water quality and efficiency and protected critical local watersheds through conservation and restoration work that provides upstream economic services and downstream community water supply.

For example, in Kenya, with support from The Foundation Coca‑Cola Foundation, the Kenya Upper Tana River Basin Water Fund was established to address threats to water security for 9 million people living in this watershed. The project made long-term investments in areas such as agroforestry adoption, terracing of hill slopes and reforestation for degraded lands in critical locations upstream. To date, the fund has provided training and equipment to more than 25,000 farmers, reduced soil runoff and water contamination, and increased farm yields.

RAIN also has equipped healthcare providers to better serve and care for their patients. WASH-related enterprises have created hundreds of job opportunities in infrastructure operations, management and agriculture. In 2020, RAIN provided 350,000+ people with handwashing stations, hygiene supplies and personal protective equipment during COVID-19.

Project Last Mile

In 2009, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID and the Global Fund approached Coca‑Cola with an important question: “If you can find a Coca‑Cola product almost anywhere in Africa, why not life-saving medicines?” The answer was Project Last Mile , a pioneering partnership to help African Health Ministries get life-saving medicines—including those used to treat malaria and HIV—to every person in Africa by focusing on last-mile delivery leveraging the Coca‑Cola system’s supply chain, logistics and marketing capabilities. The coalition builds public health systems’ capacity in supply chain and strategic marketing by sharing the expertise of the Coca‑Cola system. After a successful pilot in Tanzania, Project Last Mile eventually expanded to 35 projects in 11 additional countries reaching more than 35 million people. This includes support for COVID-19 response initiatives and vaccine rollouts.

Project Last Mile conducts in-depth scoping with stakeholders in each country to understand local context and design programs to meet the unique needs of country partners, then transfers skills and knowledge from the Coca‑Cola system to build the capacity of Ministry of Health partners to improve the availability of life-saving medicines.

In 2010, The Coca‑Cola Company announced an ambitious goal to support the economic empowerment of 5 million women entrepreneurs across its global value chain by 2020. The vision was rooted in the belief that investing in women creates a ripple effect of economic growth and sustainable change. 5by20 got its start in Africa before scaling to other parts of the world. Coca‑Cola’s Micro Distribution Centers (MDCs) in Africa—small hubs that distribute beverages to small retailers—served as a foundational catalyst for the initiative. Women owned and operated more than 85% of MDCs.

By the end of 2020, we surpassed our goal, enabling the economic empowerment of more than six million women globally, and over 2 million of these women are in Africa. The ripple effects of this program will continue to be part of Coca‑Cola Africa's legacy for years to come.

JAMII FEMMES

In 2022, the Women in Africa (WIA) initiative announced the launch of " JAMII Femmes ", a program to accelerate the economic empowerment of 20,000 women entrepreneurs directly and over 60,000 indirectly over a three-year period in ten African countries, in partnership with The Coca‑Cola Foundation. This program will span across Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Algeria, Egypt, South Africa, Morocco, Senegal, Madagascar, and the DRC. In its first year, 7,000 women entrepreneurs in Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, and Nigeria had the opportunity to benefit from the program through online training, networking opportunities, mentoring, and local boot camps.

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Water, Waste, Energy: Lessons from Coca-Cola in Africa

Africa’s challenge.

The United Nations has set as a goal universal access to “affordable, reliable, and modern energy” sources by 2030 (United Nations, 2015). From the vantage of 2017, this will be no small feat for Africa, where roughly one third of the population lacks access to electricity and more than half rely on biomass for basic energy needs (UNEP, 2017).

The United Nations has similarly set as its goal universal access to “safe and affordable drinking water” by 2030, one of several targets aimed at water and sanitation (United Nations, 2015). Again, this is a steep goal for Africa, where roughly half of the estimated 663 million people worldwide without access to clean water live (WaterAid Global, 2017; JNP, et. al., 2017).

Likewise, the United Nation’s 2030 development targets include the desire to “substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse” (United Nations, 2015). Proliferation—and failure to dispose of—waste adversely affects health while polluting the natural environment, problems that abound in Africa. Together, questions around water, waste, and energy challenge stakeholders on the African continent; but they also present opportunities for innovation. This digest examines two case studies of such innovation through the lens of what is arguably the world’s most recognizable brand: Coca-Cola. 

Coca-Cola in Africa

Coca-Cola has been in Africa since 1928, arriving first in South Africa forty-two years after the beverage was invented in Atlanta, Georgia. Through its franchise bottler model, the “secret formula” from Atlanta was exported to Africa, where it was bottled by independent franchisees who were mandated to meet standards set by the American-based corporation.

Today, Coca-Cola is in all 54 countries in Africa, where it employs more than 70,000 people in 140 bottling and canning plants, 900,000 retail outlets, and at least 3,200 micro-distribution centers (Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, 2014). This makes Coca-Cola one of, if not the, single largest private employer on the continent. Taking into consideration its positive multiplier effect—meaning the informal number of people who are supported as a result of each formal employment opportunity—the company’s reach is even bigger (Moore School of Business, 2005; PwC, 2012; PwC, 2013).

Anyone who has traveled or lived somewhere on the continent knows that it is virtually impossible to journey far enough off the beaten path to find oneself beyond the reach of Coca-Cola. Somehow, in every nook and cranny of the vast continent, you can still find a Coca-Cola product, and often a cold one. This uncanny ubiquity, striking for its contrast to the lack of basic amenities like power and clean water (that you might find there) lends insight into the singularity of this product.

Beyond having a popular product, Coca-Cola’s power rests in its vast distribution model. A bottle of Coca-Cola can—and does—travel from bottling plant to distribution center to small-scale outlet to hawker by the side of the road. That bottle travels by truck, tricycle, tuk-tuk, hand-held cart, and even dugout canoe. The strength of the Coca-Cola system is twofold: 1) along the way, each person engaged in the process makes a small profit, and 2) because of its franchise bottlers, Coca-Cola is considered to be local. And, so it is that in Africa, Coca-Cola is both a global and local commodity.

Coca-Cola’s Commitment to Sustainability

More than just an American corporation that operates overseas, Coca-Cola aims to stay attentive to immediate realities in order to protect its license to operate, mostly through collaboration with its bottlers. Creating marketing campaigns around local holidays, producing local language radio advertisements, and funding local initiatives, all under the umbrella of local bottlers, keeps the outward face of this multinational company recognizably local.

Like other companies in Africa, Coca-Cola began to pay attention to questions around sustainability at the turn of the century, particularly since its core business rests on the availability of water and energy, which were increasingly under threat. But, because Coca-Cola is a multinational company, it is also beholden to global sustainability standards.

The company’s 2020 sustainability goals, established around 2007, are aligned with global best practices, even when these exceed regulations set locally. When it comes to water, Coca-Cola’s primary ingredient, the company pledged to reduce inefficiency, promote healthy freshwater, and replenish the water it uses globally (Coca-Cola Water Report, 2017).

In 2015, the company announced that it had achieved what it calls “water neutrality,” that is, it “safely return[ed] to communities and nature an amount of water equal to what [it] uses in [its] finished beverages” on a global scale (Coca-Cola Water Report, 2017). It did this in large part through in-plant innovations and waste treatment facilities that ensure the water it puts back into the environment is clean. Since 2004, the company has also reduced the amount of water it uses to make a liter sized beverage by 27% (Sustainability Report, 2016).

At the same time, the company has partnered with more than two hundred communities across the globe to increase access to potable water, largely through its umbrella project, RAIN, and largely in Africa (RAIN, 2017). Funded by a company grant of 30 million USD, in addition to money from other donors, RAIN responds to continent-wide water crises in multiple ways (Walsh and Dowding, 2012).

Under RAIN, projects range from extending access to municipal water that, while safe, does not reach enough people, to filtering available, non-potable water, to providing access to clean water where there was none before. There are dozens of technologies employed in these projects, each dependent on immediate realities.

When it comes to energy and climate, Coca-Cola’s corporate goals also align with global benchmarks: In 2013, it pledged to reduce CO2 emissions by 25% throughout its value chain by 2020. Numbers released recently show that emissions have been reduced by 14% since 2010 (Sustainability Report, 2016). Reaching these goals entails enhancing energy management devices within its plants and installing more coolers free of hydrofluorocarbon across the globe (as old ones are replaced).

Presently, there are 81 green initiatives underway across the system, with an additional 50 in the pipeline. Most of these are small-scale solar initiatives that provide supplemental energy to plants. Although wind has the potential to generate far more energy, the capital expenditure needed for wind farms is much higher (Sustainability Report, 2016).

Turning to packaging, the other component that plays into sustainability, Coca-Cola has pledged to reach a 75% recovery rate in developed markets. This means continuing to promote recycling efforts. At the same time, the company is focused on expanding the production of what it calls “plant bottles” (recyclable Polyethylene Terephthalate, or PET, made partially from plants), which saves oil costs. And, since 2008, the company has steadily reduced the weight of its packages, helping lower fuel costs for transport. The most recent numbers note that 60% of all introduced packaging has been either recycled, recovered, or refilled (Sustainability Report, 2016).

Yet, Coca-Cola’s sustainability success stories—of which there are many—sometimes obscure regional differences. The reality is that sustainability efforts lag in Africa. According to internal Coca-Cola tracking, total waste production, energy use, and CO2 emissions across the company’s three African business units have all trended downward since 2010. However, the numbers remain above best-practice levels within the global system.

Unstable regulatory environments, the predominance of small—and therefore less efficient—plants, and under-developed provider sectors all hamper achievement in Africa. In terms of package recovery, while most  levels in Africa were reportedly high in 2015 (the most recent data), they still failed to reach levels achieved in places like Japan, Western Europe, and Canada. It should be noted, however, that package recovery levels exceeded the levels reported in the United States (Sustainability Report, 2016). Shortcomings, in other words, are not unique to Africa.

These numbers suggest there is room for improvement in Africa when it comes to water, waste, and energy. It is that space for possibility on which the company is now focused. At present, some Coca-Cola bottlers are starting to set up small photovoltaic initiatives at individual plants. Others are further along. Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, the lead bottler in Nigeria (which also operates in Europe), has several large co-generation schemes that provide its plants with some independence from an unreliable and limited grid, while reducing carbon output.

Other plants across Africa are considering similar schemes. These are all nascent, often stymied by an immature provider sector, regulatory environments inhospitable to such initiatives (compared to, say, European subsidies), and, in some cases, lack of human resources to do the significant legal, procedural, and ultimately technical legwork needed. But, they are in the pipeline, particularly because energy access is increasingly seen as a threat to operations on the ground.

At the same time, Coca-Cola is focused on packaging recovery. While cultures and systems of waste collection are not firmly in place in Africa, entire upcycling and repurposing industries arise from refuse, sometimes in ways that confound bottlers who need their glass bottles returned, for instance, and often in ways that are degrading and dangerous. Though in most of Africa returnable glass bottles (RGB) remain king, PET (plastic) is making inroads, often adding to waste. In countries where PET is captured, like Rwanda, the plastic bottles are shipped to China for recycling, which often means breaking it down for use as fiber or pellets. South Africa provides an alternate model, described below.

PETCO: Plastic Recycling

Coca-Cola South Africa played a key role in the formation of PETCO, the PET Recycling Company NPC. Established in 2004 as a voluntary consortium of members of the South African PET industry, PETCO “self-regulates” recycling of plastic bottles. In the decade since its creation, PETCO has driven recycling efforts in South Africa to over 50%, reduced landfill storage, and helped lower CO2 levels.

This means there has been an 822% increase in recycling tonnage in South Africa since its creation (Wells). As part of its model, PETCO contracts with the only bottle-to-bottle recycling plant on the continent, where PET is repurposed into food-grade PET, versus PET for use as fiber, and living out PETCO’s motto that “plastic bottles are not trash.”

To achieve these results, PETCO has incubated what it calls “income opportunities” for trash collectors, often called trolleypreneurs, who sprung up on their own to meet a need they saw. In 2016, Dr. Casper Durandt, who serves as both chairman of PETCO and technical manager for Coca-Cola South Africa, estimated the number of people doing this type of work at around 40,000, with about 18% of them scavenging on landfills (Durandt).

Coke and PETCO do not support landfill picking, which is dangerous and unhygienic, though the practice persists. Rather, they support those pickers who process rubbish at the point of consumption. Named for the trolleys they push around the city and their entrepreneurial spirt, these trolleypreneurs earn cash while serving environmental and practical ends.

This work is difficult and degrading, as the folks at Coca-Cola and PETCO are quick to point out; the average trolleypreneur was making about 200-250R, or $20 USD, a day at the time I spoke to Durandt (Durandt). But, in the absence of available employment as well as other viable methods of trash collecting, Coke and PETCO are nevertheless trying to incubate these collectors. They provide reflective vests, safer trolleys, and plastic collection bags, while paying them on debit cards and helping train them in basic business skills.

While PETCO has established a robust model that has the capacity to “close the loop” on packaging, PET use remains secondary to RGB. There is a fierce debate about what is better from an environmental point of view: PET (that can be recycled and created with plant matter) or glass. While glass theoretically retains endless recycling potential, its use requires sanitizing—that uses water; glass is also heavier than plastic.

There is no single answer to this question, since much depends on the distance the bottle travels, whether or not it is reused—and how many times—and other variables. What is clear is that with the rise of GDPs across Africa, more and more consumers will demand one-way (plastic) packaging, increasing the need for sustainable PET use.

EKOCENTER: Energy, Water, and More

Just as PETCO provides an exportable model for Coca-Cola-driven sustainability, Coke’s EKOCENTER—a kiosk/energy hub—does likewise. A two-hour drive from Kigali, the capital of the small, landlocked central African nation of Rwanda, is the flagship center in Ruhunda. There, the 25,000 residents of this rural area can now access things they once lacked: basic consumer goods, purified water, 3G internet access, a regulation soccer field, and a medical center backed by a solar powered generator.

Unlike other Coca-Cola initiatives in Africa, many of which are anonymous, the EKOCENTER is Coca-Cola branded. Inside, young women run the shop, which sells Coke, but also milk and maize, pens and paper, solar panels and toothpaste, and more, alongside a much-used cell-phone charging station.

The Ruhunda location is the model of all that an EKOCENTER can be. Beside the kiosk is a seating area with room for sixty people, space for small-scale food vendors, pit latrines with sanitation stations, and a telecommunications tower. Adjacent is a free-standing water pump that provides both “raw,” municipal water and water that has been purified by reverse osmosis to meet WHO standards. Behind that is a medical clinic frequented by 100 to 200 people daily.

The water pump, kiosk, and telecom tower are powered by a solar system with storage capacity of 13 kilowatts of power. The water pump requires between ½ and 1 kilowatt of power daily, some of which is held as back up for the clinic and some of which is sold back to small-scale entrepreneurs. The fees received help maintain the device, which is monitored remotely, but fixed locally by trained mechanics. At the time I visited, the kiosk was generating 4,000 Euros in monthly revenue with a gross profit of 800 Euros monthly.

The EKOCENTER demonstrates what Coca-Cola often refers to as its immense convening power. It is an example of what Coca-Cola calls its tri-sector partnership between business, civil society, and government. As of June 2016, Coca-Cola had placed more than 100 EKOCENTERS on the continent, with 35 in Rwanda alone.

Lessons Learned

When it comes to water, waste, and energy, no one-size solution can work across a continent as vast as Africa. Still, there are several lessons that emerge from these two case studies:

Job Creation. Any solution aimed at tackling water, waste, and energy challenges should include a job creation component. Multiple analysts across these domains have made this point: employment is central to any enduring development model (Brew-Hammond, 2297). And here, of course, is where a company like Coca-Cola, with its vast employment potential, comes in.

Serving Multiple Bottom Lines.  In the Coca-Cola system every single person who touches the supply chain makes a profit, however small. So too could those who do work aimed at tackling the world’s biggest problems. Coca-Cola understands that small profits made along the way, if properly harnessed, become the seeds of future profits and, in the best-case scenario, provide an escape from poverty. Coca-Cola’s EKOCENTERS (whose female employees are often participants in the company’s larger initiative to empower 5 million women by 2020) and PETCO, that incubates workers, are prime examples of the type of scheme that pairs income generation with sustainability work.

Corporate Involvement. These lessons also call for a willingness to see multinational corporations as potential partner agents for change. At the same time, and differently, the lessons make clear that in order for Coca-Cola, or any corporation, to rise to these challenges, it must work hard to determine that its activities are truly supporting sustainability, rather than being green window dressing. These lessons also call for a continued transfer of knowledge across the Coca-Cola (and other) corporate systems and, if possible, an extension of providers (whether around energy, water, or recycling) across geographies to expand possibilities.

Balance. Water, waste, and energy in Africa, when examined via the lens of Coca-Cola, call to mind the balance that should always be at the front of any sustainability discussion. Where we might lower carbon production with reusable glass bottles, for example, we might simultaneously expend more water. Where we might get rid of manual bottle cleaning, we might lose employment opportunities. Where we hinge our hopes at electrifying the continent around a corporation, we may undermine governments. Where we rely on a beverage company’s initiatives, we may extend the consumption of sugary drinks to those whose diets are already compromised.

The matrix around these questions is complex; the answers far from easy. The implications for the energy, sustainability, public health, and policy certainly require more exploration. 

The research featured here was supported by grant funding from the Kleinman Center. The author’s research, opinions, and insights do not represent the voice of the Kleinman Center. The author wishes to acknowledge the helpful comments of Dr. James R. Hines.

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“Coca-Cola European Partners closing in on 100% renewables target.” July 3, 2017. Edie.net. Accessed July 31, 2017. https://www.edie.net/news/10/Coca-Cola-European-Partners-closing-in-on-100–renewables-target/

Gates, Melinda. “What Nonprofits can Learn from Coca-Cola.” TED talk. September, 2010 at TEDxChange. Accessed July 17, 2017. https://www.ted.com/talks/melinda_french_gates_what_nonprofits_can_learn_from_coca_cola/transcript

Hoornweg, Daniel, Bhada-Tata, Perinaz. “What a Waste: A Global Review of Solid Waste Management.” Urban development Series; Knowledge papers. No. 15. 2012. World Bank, Washington, DC. Accessed July 17, 2017. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/17388 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”

Interview with Casper Durandt, Coca-Cola offices, Parktown Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

Interview with Alistair Schorn at PETCO, May 2017.

JMP, WHO, UNICEF, “Progress on Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.” 2017. Accessed July 17, 2017. https://washdata.org/

Karekezi, Stephen, Waeni Kithyoma. “Renewable energy strategies for rural Africa: is a PV-led renewable energy strategy the right approach for providing modern energy to the rural poor of sub-Saharan Africa?”  Energy Policy . 30 (2002) 1071-1086.

Mahama, Amadu. “2012 International Year for Sustainable Energy for all: African Frontrunnership in Rural Electrification.”  Energy Policy.  48 (2012) 76-82.

Maruf Hasan. “Sustainable Supply Chain Management Practices and Operational Performance.”  American Journal of Industrial and Business Management.  2013, 3, 42-48.

PETCO. “Plastic Bottles are not Trash.” Accessed July 31, 2017. http://petco.co.za/

“PM Praises Coca-Cola’s Solar Pant.”  The Sun Online . July 4, 2017. Accessed July 31, 2017. http://fijisun.com.fj/2017/07/04/pm-praises-coca-colas-solar-plant/

PwC. “The Coca-Cola System’s Contribution to Development Goals in Tanzania.” June, 2013. 

PwC. “The Coca-Cola System’s Contribution to National Development Goals in South Africa.” November, 2012. 

Sebitosi, A.B. and P. Pillay. “Grappling with a half-hearted policy: The case of renewable energy and the environment in South Africa.”  Energy Policy . 36 (2008) 2513- 2516.

The Moore School of Business. “The Economic Impact of the Coca-Cola System on South Africa.” University of South Carolina. March 2005.

UNEP Press Release, “New Atlas shows energy potential of Africa and opportunities for investment to meet Africa’s energy needs,” May 4, 2017. Accessed July 17, 2017. http://www.unep.org/newscentre/new-atlas-shows-energy-potential-africa-and-opportunities-investment-meet-africa%E2%80%99s-energy-needs

“United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Goal 6.” Adopted 2015. Accessed July 31, 2017.  http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/water-and-sanitation/

“United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Goal 7.” Adopted 2015. Accessed July 31, 2017. http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/energy/

“United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Goal 12.” Adopted 2015. Accessed July 31, 2017. http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-consumption-production/

Walsh, H. and Dowding, T.J. “Sustainability and the Coca-Cola company: the global water crisis and Coca-Cola’s business case for water stewardship.”  International Journal of Business Insights & Transformation . Vol. 4. Special Issue. 2012. 106-118.

WaterAid Global. “Statistics.” Accessed July 10, 2017. http://www.wateraid.org/what-we-do/the-crisis/statistics#crisis

Witt Wells, “South Africa’s PET Plastic Recycling Rates Close in on European Standards,” Apr 11, 2017. www.coca-colacompany.com/coca-cola-unbottled/south-africa-recycled-2-billion-pet-bottles-in-2017

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Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA)

Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) the 8th largest Coca-Cola bottling partner worldwide. In 2018, they shipped over 916 million cases throughout Southeast and East Central Africa.

Business Challenge

Like many manufacturers worldwide, CCBA focuses on continuous improvement. Over the years, they’d made some progress, such as reducing stock outs from 29% in 2013 to 18% in 2016 and raising on-time in-full (OTIF) shipments from 65% to 68% during the same period. But those achievements weren’t nearly good enough for CCBA to meet the growing demands of the markets it serves.

Part of the problem was the proliferation of SKUs and product categories. From 2013 to 2016, SKUs had grown from 370 to 580 and product categories had expanded from 7 to 18. Compounding the issue of complexity, CCBA was still planning demand from forecasts, and despite their best efforts, they were unable to raise accuracy much above 68%.

Finally, the organization lacked the visibility they needed to manage replenishment well. So, like many other manufacturers that rely on forecast-driven planning, they had too much of the wrong materials and not enough of the right. Their network of planners relied on homegrown spreadsheets and judgement calls to determine what they needed to order.

“If I had to summarize DDMRP into one word it would be visibility. We are able to see, at first glance the actual status of our raw materials and finished goods, which guides us in the right direction to do replenishments in the right order.”

In 2016, CCBA decided to take a closer look at Demand Driven Material Requirements Planning (DDMRP), a replenishment methodology that aligns inventory replenishment to true market demand. By October of the same year, they started sending planners through training, setting them on the path to become Certified Demand Driven Planners. Then, in February 2017, they launched their first pilot at a bottling plant in Namibia. This plant shipped more than 14M cases annually across 135 SKUs.

In March of 2018, after holding group-wide Demand Driven Planner training, CCBA rolled out a spreadsheet-based DDMRP solution across Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Tanzania. By September of 2018, however, CCBA decided the time had come to replace their DDMRP spreadsheets with a packaged solution that would help them streamline their DDMRP operations to achieve even greater improvements.

After a thorough investigation that included developing a solution in-house, they chose Intuiflow by from Demand Driven Technologies (formerly Replenishment+). Once again, the organization rolled the solution out in Namibia first with significant results, including a 29% reduction in total inventory within the first two months.

For CCBA, the journey continues. In the fall of 2019, the organization rolled out Intuiflow to Uganda, Mozambique, and Tanzania with additional locations planned.

Steven Wicks, Planning Manager talks about the impact DDMRP has made in Namibia.

Click here to see the webinar presenting their full journey.

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1 All That Sparkles: How Coca-Cola Established a Foothold in South Africa

• Published: October 2023
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Chapter One traces the arrival of Coca-Cola in South Africa before the advent of the apartheid state, explaining how the company’s method of doing business in that tumultuous climate helped create a blueprint for it to use elsewhere on the continent. It also investigates the question of when Coca-Cola first arrived on the African continent and explores the ways in which Coca-Cola’s growth happened alongside that of Johannesburg. Chapter One explores how a B-Brand, Sparletta, was formed to help launch Coca-Cola in South Africa. This chapter establishes the method the company would use elsewhere on the continent and explains key threats to the business (such as sugar and waste) that are echoed in later chapters.

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Coca-Cola Sabco - A Case Study in Distribution to the “Main Market” in South Africa

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• Gavin E. Staude 3  

Part of the book series: Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science ((DMSPAMS))

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The black population in South Africa represents the “Main Market” when it comes to fast-moving consumer goods. This paper attempts to show how Coca-Cola Sabco has adopted innovative marketing and distribution strategies to penetrate the Main Market in South Africa and to fulfil its vision and mission.

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Rhodes University, Norfolk, USA

Gavin E. Staude

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Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA

Pravat K. Choudhury

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© 2015 Academy of Marketing Science

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Staude, G.E. (2015). Coca-Cola Sabco - A Case Study in Distribution to the “Main Market” in South Africa. In: Choudhury, P. (eds) Proceedings of the 1996 Multicultural Marketing Conference. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17395-5_35

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17395-5_35

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

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