Coca-Cola to Make Acquisitions in Latin America

Constantly releasing new products and making new acquisitions will be the focus of Coca-Cola states Xiemar Zarazua who will leave his post as leader of Coca-Cola in Brazil in October after right years at the helm. "We prepare for difficult moments," said Zarazua.

Despite leaving his post, Zarazua will not be leaving the company. In fact, he will take the role of vice president of strategic endeavors for the company in Latin America. The Mexican will be replaced by Brazilian, Henrique Braun, who worked for the company in China and South Korea.

"In Latin America there are enormous opportunities. We have already seen consolidation in the areas in which we are in and we need to enter those areas that we are not in. We have an appetite for all categories. We release new products or we buy," said Zarazua regarding Brazil and neighboring countries.

Under Xiemar's time, one of the longest presidents at Coca-Cola Brazil, the company bought at the end of 2015 Laticinio Verde Campos from Lavras, Minas Gerais. In June, the company bought Ades in Latin America from Unilever. The acquisition was done in partnership with the Mexican soft drink bottler, Femsa.

When Xiemar arrived in Brazil Coca-Cola had just purchased Leao Junior, a tea brand. A year before the company had acquired juice company, Del Valle, which led the leader to restructure the company's portfolio of products.

At the same time, the company reduced the number of franchised bottlers from 16 to 10 with joint ventures and acquisitions among bottlers.

These consolidation moves, according to Xiemar, brought the company scale-ability and reduced costs helping to the company to better position itself to face downturns in the company similar to the one Brazil is currently facing.

"We prepare for difficult moments and we did well. At the time we made changes, we didn't used to have this belief system, but the results have made us stronger. We are suffering for sure, like everyone, but we were prepared. I doubt any company in Brazil is not worried," stated Xiemar.

According to the System Control of Drink Production (Sicobe) of the country's Internal Revenue Service, overall soft drink production in the country fell 8.2% in June to 956.3 million liters, compared to the same month in 2015. In comparison with May, there was a drop of 16%.

Read more at Supermercado Moderno (in Portuguese) Coca-Cola Predicts Acquisitions in Latin America

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