Coca-Cola Bottling Co, the largest independent Coca-Cola bottler in the US, has completed a transaction to expand its distribution territory to include Norfolk, Fredericksburg and Staunton in Virginia and Elizabeth City in North Carolina.
Additionally, it has signed a definitive agreement with an affiliate of The Coca-Cola Company to acquire manufacturing facilities in Sandston, Virginia and Baltimore and Silver Spring, Maryland, and an agreement with other bottlers to form a National Product Supply Group.
The completion of the distribution deal represents the initial closing under a definitive agreement it inked with Coca-Cola Refreshments USA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company, in September 2015 in order to widen the company's distribution territory to include territories located within Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.
The company plans to complete additional transaction related to the acquisition of these distributional territories by 2016. For the acquisition of the remaining territories such as those located within Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky, Coca-Cola Bottling Company is in the process of signing agreements with The Coca-Cola Company, as previously stated in its letter of intent in May 2015.
The company had previously announced expansion of manufacturing facilities in Sandston, Virginia and Baltimore and Silver Spring in Maryland, in its letter of intent dated 23 September 2015. The company hopes to begin the closure of these transactions in early 2016 and complete them in 2016.
The company is also in the process of acquiring the remaining manufacturing facilities in Indianapolis and Portland, Indiana and Cincinnati, Ohio.
The company initiated a consolidation of its supply chain recently by creating a National Product Supply System (NPSS) with independent bottlers in the US. In this reorganization process, Coca-Cola sold off nine of its production units to Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated, Coca-Cola Bottling Company United, and Swire Coca-Cola USA, all of which will be part of the National Product Supply Group (NPSG).
