3. Responsible Sales and Marketing

Together with The Coca-Cola Company, we take a strong position on the issue of advertising and promoting our products to children. We support The Coca-Cola Company’s longstanding global policy concerning to whom we should market and how.

We continuously review our policies and practices with parents, educators, nutritionists and regulators to ensure the way we market and sell our beverages is viewed as responsible. We believe that self-regulation, together with stringent self-enforcement, is the most effective approach.

A growing number of parents want more control over the nutritional choices of younger children and prefer that full-calorie soft drinks are not available to them during the school day. Although full-calorie soft drinks can be an appropriate beverage choice for young people who are physically active and follow a balanced diet, we respect their views and want to ensure that parents and educators make the decision as to which beverages are sold in their schools.

We have therefore updated and revised our policies on what beverages we sell in schools. During 2005, in every country where our products are available in schools, we listened to parents, educators, community leaders, elected officials and other stakeholders to determine what beverage choices should be offered for different age groups.

Given the local nature of stakeholder views, policies vary. However, the minimum requirements across all countries are a self-imposed restriction on selling carbonated soft drinks in primary schools and a carefully balanced portfolio of beverages chosen by local parents and educators for older students.

In addition, we have worked with industry bodies to develop new industry-wide codes and standards. Following the announcement and adoption of these policies by our company, we immediately started implementing them throughout our organization. We will monitor and measure progress toward the full execution of these policies.

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