Coca-Cola earns mostly by selling drink concentrate to bottlers. After two years when cash fell short of its dividend, the latest twelve months brought more profit per sale and stronger cash; the question is whether that lasts as costs rise.
Pick up a bottle of Coke at a corner shop, and the drink inside was probably made by someone other than Coca-Cola. The company owns the brands and the recipes. Independent partners called bottlers do much of the heavy work: making, packaging and delivering the finished drinks to shops and restaurants. Coca-Cola earns most of its profit selling them concentrate (the flavoured base of a drink). Most of its sales come from outside the United States.
Bottlers pay Coca-Cola for concentrate and for brands that make shoppers ask for the drink by name. The company keeps that demand alive with marketing and new flavours, pack sizes and price levels. This concentrate engine brings in the larger share of revenue. Coca-Cola also owns some bottlers. They add sales but keep far less from each dollar, and the company keeps selling them, with its African operations next. What remains depends on how far prices can rise without selling fewer drinks, how much marketing the brands need, and how much bottling the company still runs.
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