Everyone knows it, the famous and delicious cola bottle that gives you refreshment in hot summer days. However, only a few know where it is made or how it is delivered. The idea behind this blog was born in the logistics lecture, because none of the students could really tell how coca-cola gets to the grocery store.
Production
In the logistics lecture at Mister Garcia, we saw that the structure and design of a logistics center is very important. Especially in the case of Coca-Cola, the soft drink manufacturer has two delivery processes until it finally reaches the customer. In this process, the giant corporation acts as follows:
- the syrup is delivered to the production plant.
- it must be noted that Coca-Cola has specific bottles for each of its drinks.
- water, sweetener and carbon dioxide are added to the syrup at the production plant.
The final product is a delicious Coca-Cola bottle. But that’s not the end of the story, because the Coke bottle still has to be delivered to the customer. In 59 plants with a total of 279 production lines, Coca-Cola produces more than 12.5 billion liters of beverages annually. (2)
Distribution
There are few places in the world where there is no Coca-Cola available. Even restaurants in the deepest mountains offer Coca-Cola. Suppliers play a crucial part in Coca-Cola’s value chain. Coca-Cola also divides suppliers into three categories based on criticality and potential opportunities. (3)
Thereby the biggest customers are:
- grocer
- beverage wholesalers
- direct sales
- international key accounts
where the order indicates who is supplied the most. (4)
References
(1) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/02/plastic-bottles-coca-cola-recycling-coke.
(3) https://www.coca-colahellenic.com/en/about-us/what-we-do/supply-chain.
(4) https://irf.fhnw.ch/bitstream/handle/11654/8886/OCE2001_Coca-Cola.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y.
The blog of Logistics at MGEPS at UPV 