Coca Cola

It seems Coca Cola is taking a play out of the Pepsi play book. Coke is looking to buy up its bottlers in a $15 billion deal. This is a move to increase market penetration into niche markets like sports drinks, energy drinks, and tea drinks. The idea is to increase variety offerings while reducing the price to the consumers through utilizing their extensive bottling and distribution network. This plan could backfire by distracting Coke with bottling operations. Ultimately, this would give Coke control over new product distribution. The bottlers don't have the equipment to bottle the new niche products. I think think this is a good idea. When it comes to business success you cannot leave the your fate in the hands of others and hope for the best. Sometimes you have to take control of the situation to guarantee the outcome you are looking for.