Coca-Cola Eyes Emerging Middle Class For Growth

EMILY FREDRIX

ATLANTA (AP) — Coca-Cola Co. seeks to double its business in the next decade as it caters to the expected billion people worldwide who will join the middle class by 2020.

The world's largest soft drink maker told analysts and investors at a meeting Monday that its systemwide revenue will reach $200 billion by 2020. The company hopes to make more money off those sales as it sells more soft drinks in emerging markets and reduces costs.

CEO Muhtar Kent said that sales have doubled in the decade since 1997, and they'll do so again because of growth in India, China and other countries.

The company hopes global growth can make up for weak U.S. sales, which have been slipping as consumers limit their spending in the recession and switch to juices and teas.

Kent said the company must pay attention and react to changes in the world, which it didn't do from 2000 to 2004.

"We were too busy looking at the dashboard in front of us and not sufficiently paying attention to the world outside our windshield," he said.