Perhaps Coca-Cola's (NYSE: KO) announcement yesterday that it is building a new $80 million R&D center and headquarters in China will help lift the stock out of its torpor. China is already the company's fourth largest market, and it expects the country to pass Brazil and Mexico for second place.Coca-Cola, which has had a presence in China on and off since the 1920's, already has 29 bottling plants, operating as joint ventures, in the country. As Beth Gaston Moon blogged here earlier, the company is pinning its hopes for expansion largely on international sales.
For the China market, the company has supplemented its traditional drinks with fruit-flavored sodas such as watermelon, green apple and coconut. I'd think, in the global economy, the flexibility and depth of this market would make it an excellent testing ground for new concoctions, perhaps one of the reasons behind the new development.
In researching for this article, I came upon the literal translation of the Chinese Coca-Cola trademark, which I thought lyrical: Permit mouth to be able to rejoice.
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