Coca-Cola looks at new coffee soft drink to boost flagging sales

by Julia Pearlman, Brand Republic 18-Apr-05, 09:00

LONDON - Coca-Cola is developing a coffee-flavoured soft drink that can be drunk at room temperature or heated in a microwave in an attempt to boost sluggish sales in the UK and Europe.

The Atlanta-based soft drinks giant has registered three potential brand names for the drink -- Coca-Cola Blak, Makkio and Maquio.

Coca-Cola already makes a similar beverage in Japan called Georgia Coffee. It is the biggest-selling non-carbonated soft drink on the market there.

The new drink could be on sale in the US and Europe by next year and is being worked on by a new unit headed by Mary Minnick, who spent the last four years as president of Coca-Cola Asia.

The team is looking at encouraging consumers away from buying their coffee hot from smaller cafes or chains such as Starbucks and Caffe Nero.

The company is battling a £100m decline, with sales in the UK sliding by 6% to £494m last year. During the same period, rival Pepsi's sales dropped 8% to £80m, according to ACNielsen.

Coca-Cola hopes to encourage new consumers with a limited edition lemon flavoured variant of Diet Coke launching this summer and a no-calorie drink, Coco-Cola Zero, following poor US sales of the mid-calorie drink C2, which may not now be launched in Europe.

Mother and Naked Communications are currently working on a campaign for individual brands including a new range of diet and light drinks and a television ad for Fanta Z in May.

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