According to news reports, as part of its effort to boost sales in China, Coca-Cola Co. is investing $80 million in a new China headquarters and research-and-development center in Shanghai. The R&D center, expected to be finished by the end of 2008, will be one of six world-wide and will develop products for China and other markets, said Douglas Jackson, the company's president for China business. When completed, Coca-Cola will increase its research staff in China to 200, from 40 now. In the past five years, Coca-Cola has roughly doubled its sales volume in China, making the country its fourth-largest market, behind the U.S., Mexico and Brazil. In 2006, Coca-Cola China sold more than a billion unit cases of nonalcoholic beverages. Coca-Cola said it has an 11% share of China's nonalcoholic-beverage market.
Coca-Cola Expands R&D in China
Nov 14th, 2008
