Birmingham's Coca-Cola UNITED acquires 10 new territories

Birmingham’s Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED acquired 10 new sales and distribution centers from Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated and The Coca-Cola Company. Check out the sweet details here!

Coca-Cola UNITED

Did you know Birmingham has had its own Coca-Cola headquarters since 1902? Even cooler, it’s now the largest privately-held Coca-Cola bottler in North America.

They not only bottle the Coke we all know and love, but also other Coca-Cola drinks like Sprite, Doctor Pepper, Powerade, and smartwater.

Coca-Cola United recently closed on an acquisition they’ve been working on for four years-and we can see why!

10 New Distribution Territories throughout the Southeast

The Coca-Cola Company has been working on their refranchising efforts to better serve customers. Their partnership with Birmingham’s Coca-Cola UNITED has led to this four-year expansion that has tripled the Birmingham company’s size.

These acquisitions have added 40 additional facilities and market territories and close to 100,000 customers to Coca-Cola UNITED.

“We have been on a four-year journey with UNITED to transform their territory, and we are incredibly proud of all the great work we’ve accomplished together.”
“It’s exciting to see UNITED take on a bigger role within the system as we strengthen our community ties across the United States. UNITED has lived and celebrated our shared values for more than 100 years as a respected member of the community.”
–J. Alexander “Sandy” Douglas Jr., president, Coca-Cola North America.

This huge acquisition includes 10 new sales and distribution centers and a production facility.

Coca-Cola UNITED will now be able to better serve Florence, Leroy, Mobile and Robertsdale in Alabama; Bainbridge, Columbus and Sylvester in Georgia; Laurel and Ocean Springs in Mississippi; and Panama City in Florida. They also acquired a production facility in Mobile, Alabama.

“UNITED has more than tripled in size since 2014, and we’ve grown from fewer than 3,000 associates to an organization of almost 10,000 associates, serving more than 150,000 customers throughout our seven states, and staying true to UNITED’s core values of Quality, Excellence, Integrity and Respect. This has truly been an epic transformation of our company.”
–Claude Nielsen, executive chairman of Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED

UNITED has added 100 new employees to continue its mission of providing excellent customer service and community engagement. They plan to continue to improve their facilities, infrastructure, and fleet by investing more than $9 million in this throughout their new territories.