Dive Brief:
- Coke CEO Muhtar Kent plans to simply "sell more soda," says The Wall Street Journal, despite the industry's recent fall from grace as consumers set their sights on healthier, less-sweetened beverages.
- Kent believes that his plans, which will include upping marketing efforts and refurbishing U.S. distribution, will help the company "return to high-single-digit earnings growth in 2016," reports The Wall Street Journal.
- In a Gallup poll from last summer, 63% of Americans said they were evading soda.
Dive Insight:
Sell more soda? As the company's primary product, certainly selling more soda would be a viable option for growth, but whether Coca-Cola can actually pull it off is the big question. Consumers have made their demands clear, but the company has responded with less-sweetened and even stevia-sweetened versions of its regular variety of soda. Coca-Cola also hopes to enter more homes through single-serving pods with the upcoming Keurig Kold. But will that be enough to sway consumers back to an industry fizzing out each year?
Elsewhere in the beverage space, it appears Diageo might be up to something: nutrition information is going to start appearing on its items, specifically "packaging and/or on its responsible drinking website drinkiq.com," reports The Spirits Business. Also, a New York-based budding alcohol delivery service, Minibar Delivery, just reached a deal to buy Booze Carriage, another alcohol delivery service.