Coke adds coffee to newest beverage
ATLANTA — Coca-Cola thinks it may have found a new drink that will give soda sales a shot of caffeine: Coke Plus Coffee.
The company introduced the canned and bottled product in Australia last year, and has since rolled it out to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. It did not say where it would next introduce the drink, but CEO James Quincey said during a call with analysts Wednesday that “early results are promising.”
The version introduced in Australia has more caffeine than a regular Coke, but less than a cup of coffee, the company said.
Coca-Cola is trying to find ways to keep people interested in its namesake brand, even as it works to adapt its lineup of drinks to reflect changing tastes. The efforts come as the world’s largest soda maker faces growing concerns about sugar consumption, with the United Kingdom, Mexico, South Africa and several U.S. cities implementing special taxes on sugary drinks.
Health concerns have prompted Coke to work on reformulating certain drinks to have less sugar or marketing existing diet drinks more aggressively.
In the second quarter, for instance, the company said that strong growth for Coca-Cola Zero Sugar in North America helped lift its sparkling soft drinks volume by 1 percent. The higher sales come after the company changed the name from Coke Zero to make clearer the drink doesn’t contain any sugar.
Diet Coke, which has been struggling for years, is also showing improvement, the company said. The familiar silver cans were recently revamped to be taller and slimmer, and the drink was offered in different flavors. Although sales volume for Diet Coke dipped 1 percent in the quarter, the company said pricing lifted revenue from the brand.
