According to the business papers, KO is in a complex deal to buy Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling.

Odd, for several reasons, IMHO.

- This is KO doing the buying, not CCE or some other bottler partner. Why would KO want to own one bottler in one city in the whole country?

- "Phily Coke" is the nation's second largest black owned business. KO always liked pointing this out in situations where it helped them.

- The deal closes in 2009? Why would you promise today to pay for something in three years? A lot can happen in three years.

In any event, the consolidation of bottlers in the USA continues. I would not be surprised to see deals for CCNNE (owned by a Japanese brewer), Swire's US holdings, Arbata and even CCBCC coming.

do you have a link to this article? Did a quick search and could not find anything to back this up. thanks

It may be a precursor to KO buying back the whole bottling business.

Or just PR to raise their stock price.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060901/clf012.html?.v=64

Phillycoke.com is so odd
It has the updated Dr Pepper label/bottle in the product section, yet cherry coke's picture is the old label from a year ago.

I just think this shows Philly Coke's long time commitment to Dr Pepper.