The Coca-Cola Company (History) : Print

The Coca-Cola Company (History)
American company
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By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica • Edit History
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Coca-Cola advertisement, c. 1890s.

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Date:

1892 - present
Headquarters:

Atlanta
Areas Of Involvement:

soft drink
Related People:

Vicente Fox Roberto Crispulo Goizueta Asa Griggs Candler Robert Winship Woodruff Fay
Vincent
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The Coca-Cola Company, American corporation founded in 1892 and today engaged
primarily in the manufacture and sale of syrup and concentrate for Coca-Cola, a
sweetened carbonated beverage that is a cultural institution in the United States and a
global symbol of American tastes. The company also produces and sells other soft
drinks and citrus beverages. With more than 2,800 products available in more than 200
countries, Coca-Cola is the largest beverage manufacturer and distributor in the world
and one of the largest corporations in the United States. Headquarters are
in Atlanta, Georgia.
The drink Coca-Cola was originated in 1886 by an Atlanta pharmacist, John S.

Pemberton (1831–88), at his Pemberton Chemical Company. His bookkeeper, Frank
Robinson, chose the name for the drink and penned it in the flowing script that became
the Coca-Cola trademark. Pemberton originally touted his drink as a tonic for most
common ailments, basing it on cocaine from the coca leaf and caffeine-rich extracts of
the kola nut; the cocaine was removed from Coca-Cola’s formula in about 1903.
Pemberton sold his syrup to local soda fountains, and, with advertising, the drink
became phenomenally successful. By 1891 another Atlanta pharmacist, Asa Griggs
Candler (1851–1929), had secured complete ownership of the business (for a total cash
outlay of $2,300 and the exchange of some proprietary rights), and he incorporated the
Coca-Cola Company the following year. The trademark “Coca-Cola” was registered in
the U.S. Patent Office in 1893.
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Under Candler’s leadership, sales rose from about 9,000 gallons of syrup in 1890 to
370,877 gallons in 1900. Also during that decade, syrup-making plants were established
in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, and the product came to be sold in every U.S.
state and territory as well as in Canada. In 1899 the Coca-Cola Company signed its first
agreement with an independent bottling company, which was allowed to buy the syrup
and produce, bottle, and distribute the Coca-Cola drink. Such licensing agreements
formed the basis of a unique distribution system that now characterizes most of the
American soft-drink industry. Capitalized at $100,000 in 1892 upon incorporation, the
Coca-Cola Company was sold in 1919 for $25 million to a group of investors led by
Atlanta businessman Ernest Woodruff. His son, Robert Winship Woodruff, guided the
company as president and chairman for more than three decades (1923–55).
The post-World War II years saw diversification in the packaging of Coca-Cola and the
development or acquisition of new products. The trademark “Coke,” first used in
advertising in 1941, was registered in 1945. In 1946 the company purchased rights
to Fanta, a soft drink previously developed in Germany. The contoured Coca-Cola bottle,
first introduced in 1916, was registered in 1960. The company also introduced the
lemon-lime drink Sprite in 1961 and its first diet cola, sugar-free Tab, in 1963. With its
purchase of Minute Maid Corporation in 1960, the company entered the citrus juice
market. It added the brand Fresca in 1966.
Santa Claus; Coca-Cola
Somebody Knew I Was Coming, a depiction of Santa Claus holding a bottle of Coca-Cola; painting
by Haddon Sundblom for the Coca-Cola Company, 1940.
PRNewsFoto/The Coca-Cola Company/AP Images
In 1978 Coca-Cola became the only company allowed to sell cold packaged beverages in
the People’s Republic of China. In 1982 the company introduced its low-calorie sugar-
free soft drink Diet Coke (originally named Diet Coca-Cola). In an effort to address its
decline in market share, the company adopted a new flavour of Coca-Cola in April 1985,
using a formula it developed through taste tests. New Coke was not well received,
however. Owing to the public outcry, Coca-Cola revived its original flavour in July,
which was then marketed as Coca-Cola Classic. From 1982 to 1989 the company held a
controlling interest in Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., a motion-picture and
entertainment company.
New markets opened up for Coca-Cola in the early 1990s; the company began selling
products in East Germany in 1990 and in India in 1993. In 1992 the company
introduced its first bottle made partially from recycled plastic—a major innovation in
the industry at the time. Coca-Cola created many new beverages during the 1990s,
including the Asia-marketed Qoo children’s fruit drink, Powerade sports drink, and
Dasani bottled water. Coca-Cola also acquired Barq’s root beer in the United States;
Inca Kola in Peru; Maaza, Thums Up, and Limca in India; and Cadbury Schweppes
beverages, which were sold in more than 120 countries across the globe.
In the early 2000s Coca-Cola faced allegations of illegal soil and water pollution, as well
as allegations of severe human rights violations. In 2001 the United Steelworkers of
America and the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) filed a lawsuit against Coca-
Cola and Bebidas y Alimentos and Panamerican Beverages, Inc. (also known as
Panamco LLC; the primary bottlers of Coca-Cola’s beverages in Latin America),
claiming that the defendants had openly engaged so-called “death squads” to intimidate,
torture, kidnap, and even murder union officials in Latin America. The controversy
gained worldwide attention and led several American universities to ban the sale of
Coca-Cola products on their campuses. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed.
In 2005 the company introduced Coca-Cola Zero, a zero-calorie soft drink with the taste
of regular Coca-Cola. In 2007 the company acquired Energy Brands, Inc., along with its
variously enhanced waters. That same year Coca-Cola announced that it would join
the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR), a group of companies
working together to develop and implement corporate responses to human rights issues
that affect the business world

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The Coca-Cola Company (History)

By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica • Edit History

Coca-Cola advertisement, c. 1890s.

See all related content →

The drink Coca-Cola was originated in 1886 by an Atlanta pharmacist, John S.

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