Coca Cola have responded!

Many thanks to Rupert Allman of the BBC for his work contacting Coca Cola over the last few days.

This is just in via Rupert from Salvatore Gabola, Global Director Stakeholder Relations at Coca-Cola. I'll be taking him up on his offer of a chat. We will get there a step at a time.

"This is an extraordinarily interesting discussion. And it is one which goes to the heart of the key question of how we can make better use of the successes of business to serve the development needs of the world in general and of Africa in particular. The recent Millennium Development Goal Call for Action by Prime Minister Gordon Brown stems from this simple starting point.

It is also something we take very seriously at Coca-Cola. We are proud of what we are already doing through the Africa Foundation - for example, providing safe drinking water to communities throughout the continent. But we are also asking ourselves how our core business operation can do more. And this includes whether we can use our distribution network to deliver other goods which will help improve lives in local communities.

The challenge, of course, is to do this without undermining the successful model which helps explain why you can get a Coke across Africa. Because the very success of this network rests on the fact that it is not owned by Coca-Cola but made up of many small independent local distributors.

Our bottlers do help these small firms get started with training and start-up capital. But the system works so well because the better they distribute our drinks, the more money they make. It taps into Africa's entrepreneurial spirit of and gives people the means and the incentive to develop their business and create more jobs.

So what we are considering is if, and how, this system can be tweaked so it remains economically successful but can be extended so it does more to help the common good.

We don't have the answers yet. As often happens, it is not as straightforward as it looks at first glance. But I can promise we are working hard to find solutions.

This summer, we are beginning a research project and pilot in Tanzania to analyse in depth our distribution model and examine how it can be used to enhance its development potential. The Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the International Finance Corporation are helping with it.

Our hope is that this research will come up with concrete measures we can then apply to our distribution systems across the African continent and beyond.

Together I hope we can come up with the right solutions. And I am happy to have a chat on this subject with Simon in the near future."              

Salvatore Gabola, Global Director Stakeholder Relations, Coca-Cola.

I am really pleased. Thanks to everyone for signing up and posting resources to the Facebook Group this MUST keep growing if we are to make things happen so please keep spreading the word.

Further information

All of the Coca Cola Campaign posts

Comments

[Paul Webster]

Isn't it encouraging how these new tools cut straight through and get interest (and even maybe action) from the people who matter!

Great way to start a long weekend - we keep plugging away with you.

[Paul Groves]

Congratulations! This is fantastic news.
Getting a foot in the door so quickly is impressive.

http://tinyurl.com/6k45xl

[Julie Harris]

Well done Simon - as you say one step at a time - make sure you go for it in your conversation with Salvatore ... look forward to even better news in the next few days!

[aj@lecraic.com]

Excellent news, delighted to hear this.

[Steve Bridger]

Simon - I think this is a very positive (and interesting) response from Salvatore, and he is to be applauded. Kudos to you, and I know you'll be persistent :)

Whatever they do, I hope that they will use the web to communicate this back to all of us.

Agree with Paul; a great start to the weekend.

Steve

[Simon Berry]

Thanks for the comments and the posts that some of you have put on your own blogs. The word is getting out there and everyone is doing a bit which all adds up to a lot. The BBC, Rupert Allman in particular, has spent days in communication to Coca Cola and it's this that has given us a foot in the door. Well done everyone . . . . keep spreading the word and while doing this bear in mind that the facebbok Group 'Let's ditch Coca Cola and replace it with Irn Bru' has >2,500 members so I won't be happy until _we_ reach 5,000!

Simon

[penney Poyzer]

it is wonderful - such a simple idea that doesn't attack coca cola but encourages it to be a better organisation by using its existing framework.

Facebook campaigns can all too often lead to nothing - this campaign has already made a difference by engaging the BBC and using its power to get a comment from Coca Cola at a global corporate level. This is extraordinary.

Do all you can to urge everyone in your networks, and your friends networks to get the word out

WE ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE!

[Ryan Moede]

Nicely done, Simon! I'll be joining the Facebook group as soon as I'm finished writing this comment! It's encouraging to see the valuable interaction that can take place between a large corporation and even just one person through the power of social networking. Again, congratulations on sparking an idea and movement that has only begun.