Around the World: Key Facts

Wherever The Coca-Cola Company does business, we strive to be trusted partners and good citizens. We are committed to managing our business with a consistent set of values that represent the highest standards of integrity and excellence. We share these values with our bottlers, making our system stronger.

Although Coca-Cola was first created in the United States, it quickly became popular wherever it went. Our first international bottling plants opened in 1906 in Canada, Cuba and Panama, soon followed by many more. Today, we produce nearly 400 brands in more than 200 countries. Our products meet the varied taste preferences of consumers everywhere.

We bring refreshment to people in over 200 countries. For brief descriptions of our business in some of those locations – information about our local history, brands, bottling operations, community involvement, and other initiatives click here.

Citizenship

The Coca-Cola Company has always endeavored to conduct business responsibly and ethically. We are committed to creating value in the marketplace, enriching the workplace, preserving and protecting the environment, and strengthening the communities where we operate.

For more information on our citizenship initiatives, policies and performance around the world, please review our 2006 report.  

Turkey

On November 15, the International Labor Rights Fund filed a lawsuit against The Coca-Cola Company and the bottler in Turkey, CCI, in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

We would like to provide the facts:

First, the underlying labor dispute was between an independent third-party distribution and freight company that supplies services to the independent Coca-Cola bottler in Turkey (CCI), and the union DISK/Nakliyat. The labor dispute does not directly involve CCI.

It is true that more than 100 protestors gathered at the offices of CCI on July 20 this last summer and illegally broke into the facility. No action to remove the protestors was taken for 10 hours after the protestors had broken into the facility, and several meetings were held between CCI management and the protestors to try to resolve the situation peacefully.

As the day ended and it started becoming dark, police were under the order of the Public Prosecutor of Turkey to break up the crowd to maintain public order. Because the individuals repeatedly refused to leave the premises voluntarily, the police removed the protestors at the request of the Public Prosecutor. Police were required to use tear gas on a limited basis inside the building in order to facilitate the dispersal of the large crowd. In accordance with standard police protocol, the 20 women and children who were present were taken to a hospital for evaluation as a precautionary measure. All were released. Ninety protestors were brought to police headquarters, where they received a health check and gave their testimonies, and then were released. The health evaluations indicated that none of the protestors were injured; none spent the night in jail. Ten were detained in police headquarters overnight.

Throughout this situation, CCI continued to try to resolve the situation peacefully, asking the police to delay action. After ten hours of negotiations, the Public Prosecutor made the decision that the situation could not be allowed to continue. The Coca-Cola system respects the rights of people to hold peaceful protests and regrets that a peaceful resolution to the illegal occupation of the CCI building could not be achieved.

It’s important to note that the underlying dispute between the distribution company Trakya Nakliyat ve Dagitim and the DISK/Nakliyat has been resolved and DISK/Nakliyat has signed a Settlement Agreement with TN.

The Coca-Cola Company and its bottling partners comply with all applicable labor and employment laws in the countries in which we do business. We recognize international labor standards and are committed to respecting the workplace human rights of our employees and the parties with whom we do business. We respect our employees’ right to join or not join labor unions, and ensure that those rights are exercised without fear of retaliation, repression or any other form of discrimination.

Dasani

Recently false allegations about our bottled water product, Dasani, have appeared online alleging that Dasani is a tap water and packaged in hazardous material.  Here are the facts:

• Dasani is purified water with added minerals for taste. It is not tap water, but a purified water remineralized through reverse osmosis that adheres to strict quality standards.

• Our reverse osmosis process improves the purity of the water by removing any impurities that may exist in tap water.  This is a leading edge technology which, in very simple terms, provides a great tasting pure bottled water.

• The Dasani package is just as recyclable as any other PET material used for bottle-type packaging. Tests conducted by an independent laboratory confirm that the blue color has little effect on the clear PET recycling stream as long as the volume of the blue material mixed in with the clear material remains less than 10% of the total material. It is extremely unlikely that the total volume of blue material as a percent of the total clear material would ever approach 10%.