Postcard from Bishkek

On May 8th, 2011, Coca-Cola marked its 125th anniversary.  Created in 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia, by Dr. John S. Pemberton, Coca-Cola was first offered as a “fountain beverage” at Jacob’s Pharmacy by mixing Coca-Cola syrup with carbonated water.

Coca-Cola is the most popular and biggest-selling soft drink in history, as well as being the “best-known product in the world” with a brand name that was claimed to the most valuable in the world in 2001 and 2002 – and in the latest set of figures still manages to rank fourth place, (after Google, General Electric and Microsoft).

One year later, in 1887, Coca-Cola was patented, then registered as a trademark in 1893 and by 1895 it was being sold in every state and territory in the United States.   In 1899, The Coca-Cola Company began franchised bottling operations in the United States.

Coca-Cola might owe its origins to the United States, but its popularity has made it truly universal. Today, you can find Coca-Cola in virtually every part of the world including Kyrgyzstan, where the brand is represented by the Coca-Cola Bishkek Bottlers OJSC. 

For the record: OJSC stands for Open Joint Stock Company.

 The Bishkek company is part of a Turkish consortium, Coca-Cola İçecek,  which is the 6th largest bottler in the Coca-Cola System in terms of sales volume – and one of the biggest foreign investments here in Kyrgyzstan, with a bottling plant in Bishkek.  It also operates in other countries across the region, in Azerbaijan, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan as well as in Turkey itself.

It was in 2008 that Coca-Cola İçecek purchased the complete share package and assumed control of the company.  The Bishkek company had originally been established in 1995  to produce, sell and distribute sparkling and still beverages of “The Coca-Cola Company” (TCCC) in Kyrgyzstan and it actually began production on May 8th the following year – 110 years after the creation of the elixir.   As well as serving the Kyrgyz market, it also exports to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.

Amongst the over 3000 Coca Cola products which are manufactured worldwide, the classic Coca Cola, Coca Cola Light, Fanta, Sprite,  13 different tastes of Piko juices, a variety of blends of Nestea (cold tea mixed with fruit flavours), Schweppes Tonic water, Bon Aqua mineral water are produced and marketed in Kyrgyzstan.  The company has recently launched a new product, (Coca-Cola Zero),which contains no sugar, but still has the same taste of the classic Coke drink.

Coca-Cola has also become an official distributor of the energy drink, BURN.

 

Over the years Coca Cola has become more than just brand name … the wordgram trade mark, classic bottle shape, the red and white company colours which became the “traditional”  colours for the costume of Santa Clause, the imaginative advertising campaigns, (“teaching the world to sing in perfect harmony”), … and even surviving a near catastrophic re-branding which had to be aborted in the face of sarcastic counter claims about it no longer being the “real thing” from its great rival: Pepsi Cola.

For the record: As it happens, Coca Cola’s great rivals, Pepsi, are also represented in Kyrgyzstan … in BishkekSut OJSC,  (Bishkek Milk – OSJC), the largest enterprise in the country for processing milk, dairy and juice products.  If it seems like an odd combination, soft drinks and dairy products, the connection comes through the Russian parent company of Bishkesut.  The plant was originally launched in 1991, and later, in 2000, the Russian Wimm-Bill-Dan Foods company bought a controlling stake in the company.

 

 

Tags: For_the_Record, History, Kyrgyzstan, Organizations