PITTSBURGH — The Coca-Cola Company announced that it has re-franchised 90% of its Pennsylvania territory bottling operations to ABARTA Coca-Cola Beverages (ACCB), a privately held third and fourth generation family business with interests in non-alcoholic beverages, energy, ethnic, frozen food and technology, according to the release.
ACCB will distribute the full family of Coca-Cola products (Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Sprite, Dasani, Monster, Vitamin Water, Powerade and Smartwater) to numerous locations across the state, including Harrisburg and Lancaster.
“The thing that changes with the Pennsylvania expansion is the sheer size of ABARTA Coca-Cola Beverages,” said ACCB Chief Executive Officer Charles Bitzer. “We are tripling the size of our company, based on employment and projected product sold.”
Bitzer adds that the ACCB has already transitioned around 1,000 Coca-Cola employees and acquired 12 distribution facilities. The company plans to spend $10 million a year for the next ten years on local capital investments into equipment, facilities, delivery fleet and community support, the release states.
ACCB also hopes to instill “static routing” across the state, meaning that the supermarket, convenience store, etc. can expect to be served by the same delivery person day in and day out.
“That [ stating routing] helps us build relationships, which is the backbone of our company,” said Bitzer. “We’re family-owned, so it’s about people and taking a unique approach to serving customers.”
Bitzer concluded, “We’re also true beverage experts – from merchandising managers to delivery drivers – so we have a deep understanding of local markets and that ensures that our customers deliver maximum satisfaction to their end consumers.”
