I recently read an article that said that the principal owner of #4 Philadelphia Coke is interested in selling his stake, but it looks like there's a good chance that the company will stay privately owned.

On the other hand, the article also mentioned that #10 Central Coke is also rumored to be for sale. Their northern territories are adjacent to CCE, but the southern ones are closer to CCBCC. I'd like to see Consolidated get them, and push into the Mid-Atlantic. We could use their innovation up this way. Central is really boring! And Abarta is even worse.. Do they have fridge packs in Cleveland or Buffalo yet? I know that Coatesville and Lehigh Valley still have the old round-corner 3x4s.

IMHO, Coke is proud of Philadelphia Coke, which is one of the country's largest black owned businesses. CCE will stay clear for that reason at this time.

I look for CCBCC to buy KO's half of the Piedmont partnership (CCBCC and KO each own territories in eastern NC, the operations are combined and run by CCBCC) before they buy anything else. CCBCC has a stated goal of "being significant in the Coca-Cola system, and that means, IMHO, bigger. But its really doesn't want unions, sticking (except for WV) to right-to-work states.

Central, if it was for sale, would be snapped up by CCE or CCBCC.

CCNNE is a non-core asset of a Japanese beer company. Swire is, likewise, a non-core asset of a Hong Kong conglomerate whose major endeavors are shipping and airlines. Either would be an easy sell to clear some debt or finance some expansion in their core businesses.

IMHO, the eventual goal of KO is for CCE to be the single bottler for the USA and Canada.

Originally posted by SamC:
IMHO, the eventual goal of KO is for CCE to be the single bottler for the USA and Canada.

i do believe that's the saddest thing i've ever heard...

Sad, but the truth is, it's becoming more and more obvious these days of truth. Look at some of the ones of days gone by. Big bottlers, all sucked up. I'm saying like Johnston, Herbco, etc.

Originally posted by SamC:
IMHO, Coke is proud of Philadelphia Coke, which is one of the country's largest black owned businesses. CCE will stay clear for that reason at this time.

I look for CCBCC to buy KO's half of the Piedmont partnership (CCBCC and KO each own territories in eastern NC, the operations are combined and run by CCBCC) before they buy anything else. CCBCC has a stated goal of "being significant in the Coca-Cola system, and that means, IMHO, bigger. But its really doesn't want unions, sticking (except for WV) to right-to-work states.

Central, if it was for sale, would be snapped up by CCE or CCBCC.

CCNNE is a non-core asset of a Japanese beer company. Swire is, likewise, a non-core asset of a Hong Kong conglomerate whose major endeavors are shipping and airlines. Either would be an easy sell to clear some debt or finance some expansion in their core businesses.

IMHO, the eventual goal of KO is for CCE to be the single bottler for the USA and Canada.

Consolidated is the best thing for Coke to have going. They have a primary business of COKE, and they're the ones doing the innovation for CCE. Fridge packs? Consolidated.

Coke owes a lot to Consolidated for being its test ground for pretty much everything new, and I think CCE would not want to get into a bidding war with Consolidated for that reason alone.

I agree that Central, Coke New England, MAC, and Swire are prime targets for either Consolidated or CCE to get their hands on simply because they're secondary businesses to their owners.

Then there are owners like Cookie Rice at Coke Ozarks who won't sell regardless of what you do. The man has had the bottler in his family for 100 years or so, and has no intention of selling anytime soon.

What you'll have is CCE and then a *few* indies, like Philly and Consolidated.

ABARTA may end up selling its Coke business to CCE and keeping the third/4th tier business they do to CCE. That makes a ton of sense. (And even if they sell third tier rights to some products, I guarantee Coke will dump the DPSU brands in short order.)

Except Dr Pepper. Abarta's Lehigh Valley and Coatesville sales centers both have Dr Pepper, and I know they do pretty well with it. They have it in every cooler, display, and so on. I don't think that in these two areas Abarta has any other non-Coke products, except Evian, which is technically Coke as well.

Central on the other hand has Yoo-Hoo and Chocolate Moose in some of their areas. I don't remember seeing Pepper in any Central areas, though. I think they have Pibb everywhere.

Which makes me wonder.. Does Mid-Atlantic Canners produce any non-Coke products? The only two bottlers I know of around here that still use them are Central and Northern Neck, and NN doesn't have any non-Coke brands now that NNGA has been acquired by Coke. They're a pretty run of the mill Coke bottler. They buy cans from MAC, and 2L and 24oz from CCE's Richmond and Alexandria facilities (they dropped 16.9oz when CCE rolled out 24oz).

Central does not possess any non-Coke soda brands. However, that has greatly changed.

In the past here, we had A&W and Sunkist. MAC produced them in Zanesville. MAC also produced Squirt, Canada Dry, and Welch's for Herbco in Central PA until the CCE merger. It's simply those products have went away from MAC and from bottlers like Central. Central has a pretty much standard portfolio of Coke stuff, they're really not much different in offerings than CCE Mid-Atlantic anymore, but forget finding Fanta up here, and we may have a little more Pibb than downstate does. Back in 1987 here in the Cumberland area, we even had Lipton Iced Tea produced by Central Coke. I found an ad in a newspaper from Central Coke displaying their brands at the time. Pretty interesting ad, there was one for New Coke, Coca-Cola Classic, original Diet Cherry Coke, Sugar Free A&W, among other things. I can't figure out what the ginger ale was then, but I do know it wasn't Canada Dry. That has been in third-tier here for a while now.