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Largest Coke Bottler To Distribute Arizona Iced Tea

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Thursday, November 16, 2006 11:15 AM

In a departure from primarily delivering its namesake's products, Coca-Cola Enterprises says it will distribute new 34-ounce bottles of Arizona iced tea with lemon, green tea with ginseng and honey, and sweet tea. CCE is the world's biggest bottler of nonalcoholic beverages. A spokesman says the Arizona deal fits the bottler's strategy under new president and CEO John Brock, which is to sell "the top one or two brands in each category."

Dan Schafer, a Coke spokesman, expressed the beverage giant's disappointment with the CCE deal. "Clearly, we would prefer that our bottlers distribute our brands," he says. Coke has taken several steps in recent months to make itself more competitive in coffee and tea drinks.

Ready-to-drink tea is the fastest-growing noncarbonated beverage in the U.S., with volume rising faster than for bottled water, sports drinks or juice drinks in the first half of 2006, according to Beverage Digest.

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