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Retailers, consumers and prices
Coca-Cola’s tale of four cities
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times …
When trying to determine how and when consumers will recover from the downturn, Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent sees the world broken into four quadrants. It’s “A Tale of Four Cities,” he said.
Think of four different quadrants, Kent said on a call on Tuesday after the company reported second-quarter results.
1. Europe, North America and maybe a couple of other economies – “where we will probably be experiencing resets in terms of the consumer psyche, where they’ll probably do things differently than they’ve done in the past.”
2. China, India, Brazil - very strong, quick rebound
3. Japan – “stagnation”
4. Eastern Europe, Russia and the Ukraine - volatility. “It could come back quickly and then it could go back down quickly. I think we’re in for a few years of zigs and zags for Russia, Eastern Europe and so forth.”
(Reuters photo of Kent at a 2008 news conference in Tokyo)
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