History of Coca Cola Essay

About the Company: The first signs of the Coca-Cola Company started out in Atlanta in 1886 when a pharmacist named John Pemberton developed a caramel colored carbonated drink and sampled it to customers. Soon after, the drink was for sale at five cents a glass, selling about nine glasses a day in the local pharmacy. After Pemberton’s death in 1888, an Atlanta businessman named Asa Griggs Candler, secured the rights to Coca-Cola for a total of $2300 and it was at this time that Coca-Cola transformed from an invention into a business. Over the next several years, through coupons, advertisement, and sampling, the demand for Coca-Cola continued to grow making it necessary to open syrup plants in Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles. In 1899, two lawyers secured the rights from Candler to sell Coca-Cola in portable bottle sized serving, as opposed to only being offered in the soda fountains. Not realizing the popularity bottles would have, Candler sold the rights for just one dollar. Going into the new century, Coca-Cola continued to see rapid growth moving into other countries including Canada, Panama, Puerto Rico, France, and Cuba to name a few. From having just two bottlers in 1990, Coca-Cola had almost 1000 bottlers in 1920. Over the next twenty year, focus was on introducing the beverage around the world with much success. After 70 years of success with Coca-Cola, the company began introducing other flavored beverages including Fanta ®, Tab ®, Fresca ®, and Sprite ®. The company’s presence was growing more and more internationally in countries such as Cambodia, Turkey, and Paraguay. In1971, the company was selected to be the only company allowed to sell packaged cold drinks in The Peoples Republic of China. During the 1980’s, Diet Coke was introduced and the company made an attempt at developing a new improved formula for Coca-Cola. While this had good test panel results, when the new formula was introduced on the market, the public begged for the old formula to be reinstated. The public opinion eventually won and Coca-Cola Classic was back on the shelves. The 1990’s  brought other new beverages to the line up including Dasani ® bottled water, Powerade ® sports drink, and Barq’s ® root beer. The company continued to move into other countries including East Germany and India. By 1997, the company was up to over 1 billion servings of their product a day and continually growing. Coca-Cola started out as an experiment in a pharmacy selling just nine glasses a day and now has over 500 brands world wide selling over 1.7 billion servings per day. Even with the tough economy, Coca-Cola has continued its growth and remains to be a beverage that consumers reach for da ily, not just in the United States, but all over the world.