Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company S.A. (Coca-Cola HBC, CCHBC) announced that it has signed a letter of intent with The Coca-Cola Company which will allow the formation of a three way joint venture with illycaffe SpA. The joint venture will be responsible for the manufacture, marketing, selling and distribution of premium ready-to-drink coffee across Coca-Cola HBC's territories. This follows the announcement by The Coca-Cola Company and illycaffe in October of this year of their intention to establish a global joint venture.
It is expected that negotiations in relation to the joint venture business model, which will also be subject to regulatory approval, will be concluded in early 2008.
Commenting, Doros Constantinou, Managing Director of CCHBC said, "Ready-to-drink coffee is a small but high growth high value category in most of our markets. The formation of this joint venture will combine the strengths of the Coca-Cola System around marketing, customer relationships, and route-to market capabilities with illy a premium coffee brand. Furthermore, this joint venture will further strengthen our premium product offering and will allow us to maximise its potential working with two very strong partners who share the same vision as ourselves."