Return
to Story Page
To print: Select File and then Print from your
browser's menu
Rajita Bansal
MUMBAI, Dec 7: Beverage major Coca-Cola has bought out yet another bottler in its quest to build a company-controlled bottling network. The new bottler to join the cola giant's expanding company-owned bottling operation (Cobo) is McCoy Bottling based at Wada, near Mumbai. This will be its first company-owned bottling operation in Maharashtra.
The company is also in the final stages of signing a deal with its current bottler Prakash Chauhan to sell machine, equipment and glass float (the glass bottles) to Coca-Cola. The deal between Coca-Cola and McCoy was confirmed by industry sources and by officers handling McCoy's loan portfolio at Sicom. Speaking to The Financial Express, a Sicom officer said Coca-Cola has paid off the term-loan of McCoy worth nearly nine crore rupees on November 18. He said the repayment of the loan was made directly by Coca-Cola, which stated that it was taking charge of McCoy's business. Negotiations between the two companies had started as early as July but, when reported,were continually denied by Coca-Cola.
Industry observers feel that once Prakash Chauhan hands over the equipment and glass float to Coca-Cola, it would be transferred at McCoy's Wada plant. McCoy, which was earlier bottling for Cadbury Schweppes, also has a PET manufacturing facility, which would prove to be a strategic asset for the cola giant. Coca-Cola has already committed nearly Rs 200 crore to Maharashtra to set up and develop bottling operations. It seems that quite a bit of the amount will be utilised at Wada to expand the existing scale of operations. The combined capacity of McCoy and Prakash Chauhan's bottling line is around 1,000 bottles per minute, while the PET capacity is for 60 bottles per minute. Coca-Cola is expected to pump in at least Rs 75 crore in the next one year into more glass float and other marketing and distribution inputs. The western market has huge potential for the cola company, and it has already got on stream a new bottling unit in Gujarat to service thestate.
Six-month pact with Pure Drinks
Coca-Cola has signed a six-month contract packaging deal with the Delhi-based Pure Drinks Ltd. The deal should see Coca-Cola through the time till its own company-owned bottling operation is up and ready. The company is building a bottling unit in Noida, which should be ready for operation in the next few months. As the cola giant has already got Ramesh Chauhan to sign over his plant machinery and glass float, it would subsequently shift all of it to the Noida plant. Pure Drinks has its own brands, Campa Cola and Campa Orange, but has vast amount of unutilised capacity. It was earlier bottling for Schweppes, but a fallout between the promoters of Pure Drinks had led Schweppes to terminate its agreement with them. For Coke, therefore, it has been an ideal opportunity to capitalise the idle capacity while its own plant gets ready. Coke is also in setting up a greenfield company-owned bottling operation near Bangalore. It already has such a unit at Pune whichalso houses the company's sole PET unit.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
------------------------------------------------------------
This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
------------------------------------------------------------