CEO John Brock

The Coca-Cola Company manufactures, distributes, and markets nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups worldwide. It principally offers sparkling and still beverages. The company is member of the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrials and the S&P Dividend Aristocrats indexes. Coca-Cola has paid uninterrupted dividends on its common stock since 1893 and increased payments to common shareholders every year for 47 years. From the end of 1998 up until December 2008 this dividend growth stock has delivered a negative annual average total return of 2.10% to its shareholders. The stock has largely traded between $65 and $40 over the past decade. The company has managed to deliver ... Read Full Story

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Consumers overseas bought more Coca-Cola products in the first quarter than a year earlier, but the company’s first-quarter profit fell 10 percent because of one-time costs and the dollar’s strength abroad, Coca-Cola Co. said Tuesday. Coca-Cola shares fell slightly in afternoon trading as investors worried that the strong dollar could continue to hurt the company. Investors also were reacting to the company’s dismissal of rival PepsiCo Inc.’s announcement Monday that it was offering $6 billion to buy out its two largest bottlers as insignificant to its own business. PepsiCo said owning the bottlers would let it respond more nimbly to the ... Read Full Story

By James Kanter Coca-Cola Enterprises, Europe The beverage giant is testing a hybrid truck. Beverage giant Coca-Cola has been delivering some of its products with hybrid electric trucks in North America for some time. Now the company says it will roll out the first hybrid vehicle of its kind to be used in a European city. Coke says the hold-up in Europe was a special formula – not for the famously secret recipe for its cola but for manufacturing hybrid engines for delivery vehicles in urban areas, where frequent stops and starts are common. “In Europe, we have lagged behind the U.S. in hybrid ... Read Full Story

The chief executive of Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. got a compensation package valued at $11.9 million in 2008, according to the Coke bottler's proxy filing Wednesday. John Brock's 2008 pay is about $1 million less than in 2007, when he earned $12.9 million. As the economy spiraled downward last year, the company booked a loss of $4.39 billion and saw its stock fall 53 percent. Shares have fallen another 11 percent since the start of the year, closing Wednesday at $10.70. Brock, who runs the biggest Coke bottler, earned $1.1 million in salary and a $147,344 cash bonus. He also got $219,745 in other compensation, ... Read Full Story

Coke bottler to add 185 hybrid delivery trucks Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Enterprises announced Friday that it will add 185 hybrid electric delivery trucks to its fleet in 2009, more than doubling the largest hybrid delivery truck fleet in North America. The hybrids, which work on both diesel and electric power, reduce emissions by at least 30 percent and increase fuel efficiency by at least 30 percent compared to regular diesel trucks. Sustainability, or environmentally friendly, projects such as the hybrid vehicles are key for the company, said John Brock, CCE chairman and CEO. “It’s important because it’s the right thing to do for business,” Brock ... Read Full Story