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BEIJING—Coca-Cola hopes it can increase fourfold its
business in China through its sponsorship of the ongoing
29th Beijing Olympics.
“The
company has high hopes for the huge Chinese market,”
Coke chairman E. Neville Isdell told the
English-language China Daily over the weekend. “We could
easily quadruple our business here.”
Coke is
one of 12 worldwide Olympic partners, or the so-called
TOP sponsors, the others being Lenovo, Kodak, Omega,
Atos Origin, Panasonic, GE, Manulife, Samsung, Johnson &
Johnson, McDonald’s and Visa. Coke has been in China
since 1928, the same year the soft-drink brand began
sponsoring the Olympics.
China is
Coke’s fourth-largest market by volume, but Isdell said
he believes the country would be the company’s largest
one day. “But even when China becomes the No. 1 market,
it won’t be the highest per capita. There will always be
mountains to climb.”
The
Olympics, specifically Beijing, has always been a
challenge for Coke, according to Isdell.
“This is
the biggest single challenge the people of Coca Cola Co.
have ever faced—how to maximize this wonderful
opportunity in China,” added Isdell. The Beijing Games,
he said, “raises the bar and creates a new platform.
We’re looking at this to be the launching pad for us to
take our business to the next level.”
Isdell
personally participated in the Beijing Games. He was a
torch-bearer on the final leg of the relay on Friday. “I
think this is genuinely the coming-out parade for China.
It is going to change positively the perception of
China, and change China in terms of its engagement with
the world,” he said.
Isdell
was himself thrilled to be part of the Beijing Olympics.
“To hold the torch when it is lit sends shivers down
your spine. It’s just so special because it symbolizes
what the Olympics [is] all about,” he said. |
