THE NATION Coca-Cola Is Going Just a Bit Flat in Atlanta
Of course the hometown is still loyal to the soda, but Pepsi has stolen the company's Wall Street fizz, and Main Street isn't so reliant on it.
By Jenny Jarvie Times Staff Writer
December 27, 2005
ATLANTA * For nearly a decade, Theodore L. Parrish, a 33-year-old investment portfolio manager, has championed PepsiCo stock from Atlanta, the hometown of Coke.
"Oh, man," he said, "it's a difficult path to take."
His belief in PepsiCo's diversification * soda makes up less than 20% of the company's sales, compared with 80% of Coca-Cola's * leads to awkward silences with Coke executives at golf tournaments and irate phone calls from Coke investors who hear him on the local radio.
This month, when PepsiCo Inc. surpassed Coca-Cola Co. in market value for the first time, Parrish enjoyed a moment of vindication.
"I'm not surprised," he said. "I just regret it's taken so long. People here take Coke too seriously, absolutely too seriously."
In Atlanta, a Coke is not just a Coke: The caramel-colored soda that was invented by a local pharmacist more than a century ago is an elixir; it cures headaches and it boosts civic pride.
Dr. John S. Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in 1886, the same year that Henry W. Grady delivered his famous speech heralding Atlanta as the "brave and beautiful city" of the New South. Atlanta's fortune has been bound with Coca-Cola's ever since.
Throughout the 20th century, the iconic American soda * arguably the world's most recognizable product * poured money into Atlanta.
The news that the value of Coke shares has declined about 1% this year * while PepsiCo's share value has increased about 15% * has caused discomfort in the city that recently named its gleaming downtown entertainment complex * home to the new Georgia Aquarium and the forthcoming World of Coca-Cola * Pemberton Place, in honor of Coke's inventor.
"Coca-Cola and Atlanta have grown up together," said the president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Sam A. Williams. "It's impossible to imagine Atlanta without Coca-Cola."
Indeed, Atlanta owes its crowning moment * the 1996 Olympic Games * to Coca-Cola Co., which encouraged local executives to raise money for the city's Olympic bid.
Almost every important institution here has a connection with Coke.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is based in Atlanta thanks to the lobbying of longtime Coke magnate Robert W. Woodruff.
Emory University is known as Coca-Cola University because more than $1 billion of its endowment is in Coke stock. The Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta has a Coca-Cola Chair in Engineering Statistics, and the University of Georgia in Athens, about 60 miles from Atlanta, has a Coca-Cola Center for Marketing Studies.
Yet things have changed since 1991, when the chamber's president at the time claimed that no decision was made in Atlanta without knocking on the door of Coke's headquarters.
While Coke remains a player in Atlanta * donating 9 acres downtown to the Georgia Aquarium and $10 million to the Atlanta Symphony Center project * it is no longer peerless.
"We have a lot more companies and we are a much bigger city now," chamber President Williams said.
Atlanta has the nation's third-largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies * including Home Depot Inc., United Parcel Service Inc., BellSouth Corp. and Delta Air Lines Inc. * and a metropolitan-area population of more than 4.5 million.
A decade ago, Coke's market capitalization was $133 billion, more than double PepsiCo's value at the time of $59 billion, but this year it dropped below $100 billion. Some investors believe that Coke has been too slow to target health-conscious consumers.
In Atlanta, Coke fans insist that the company's declining stock value is temporary, born of fickle Wall Street speculation.
"It doesn't worry me," said Steve Brumbelow, 56, president of the Coca-Cola Collectors Club chapter in Atlanta. "I've tried every cola you could imagine, and Coke's the best cola I've had. It's the taste. It has a magical quality."
Brumbelow, a healthcare coordinator for Lucent Technologies, used to drink 12 Cokes a day, but switched to six Diet Cokes when he was diagnosed with diabetes.
Health is not a preoccupation at the Varsity, the world's largest drive-in restaurant, which has served chili dogs and onion rings since 1928. The Atlanta institution dispenses nearly 3 million servings of Coca-Cola a year, reportedly more than any other restaurant in the world.
For Varsity Vice President Gordon Muir, 40, grandson of the Varsity's founder, drinking Pepsi makes him feel guilty. "I was born and bred in Atlanta," he said. "When I go to a restaurant that doesn't serve Coke, I have a hard time."
Muir worries that his loyalty to Coca-Cola is not shared by recent transplants to Atlanta. "People who move here from other places, they don't feel so strongly that it has to be Coke," he said.
Even his own employees, he said, bring Pepsi bottles into the Varsity.
For most of the 20th century, it was almost impossible to buy Pepsi in Atlanta.
Yet now Pepsi is sold at Taco Bell and Pizza Hut restaurants, not to mention every chain supermarket and gas station in Atlanta.
And many Atlantans drink Gatorade sports drinks, Aquafina water and Tropicana juices without realizing those beverages are owned by Pepsi.
"Atlanta is not as Cokecentric as you might think," Parrish said.
"Pepsi is already here. It has snuck in the back door." -------------------------------------------------------------- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.