The Coca-Cola Company has announced an agreement to sell its bottling operations in China for 1 billion U.S. dollars.
As a result, Coca-Cola's bottling operations in China will be concentrated in its two franchise partners, COFCO and Swire.
COFCO will own and operate 18 bottling plants, while Swire will own and operate 17.
Experts says by refranchising all company-owned bottling operations in China to local partners, Coca-Cola aims to position these companies to leverage greater scale, capability and efficiency throughout China to invest for growth.
For more on this, we are joined on the line by Mike Bastin, Director of the China Business Center at Southampton Solent University.
