Coca-Cola Zero success reflects consumer trends

MEDIA RELEASE

10 May 2006

Coca-Cola Zero success reflects consumer trends

New Zealander’s move towards sugar free soft drinks has been demonstrated by the runaway success of Coca-Cola Zero, which will soon reach the milestone of the 10 millionth 600ml bottle being manufactured.

Coca-Cola Zero is the new member of the Coke family that has all the taste of regular Coke but no sugar. Coca-Cola Zero was launched in January 2006 with targeted marketing and sampling campaign aimed at all New Zealand males between 18 -29.

In the first three months of sales, the one millionth unit case mark has been reached which is the equivalent of 9.46 million 600ml bottles and with sales continuing to grow the magic 10 million mark is not far away.

Coca-Cola Oceania New Zealand Country Manager, Vicky Taylor, says the response to the product has been phenomenal.

“In fact awareness is so high that three quarters of the population have seen and/or heard about Coca-Cola Zero, over one third of them have tried Coca-Cola Zero and 75% of these people have gone back for more.”

Coke Zero has contributed to strong Diet Carbonated Soft drinks growth, which is at 16% year to date for Supermarkets compared to the same period last year.

AC Nielsen scan data shows that consumers buying behaviours have changed dramatically in the last few years:

- In 2005, sugar free fizzy drinks made up 27% of all fizzy drink sales, up from 24% in 2004 and 21% in 2003

- Sugar sweetened fizzy drinks sales declined by 6.2% in 2005 while sugar free alternatives grew 10%

The trend is set to continue as Coca-Cola invests in developing and marketing brands such as Coca-Cola Zero.

“We have invested $4 million dollars into sales and marketing and there is more Coca-Cola Zero action in the pipeline”, said Taylor.

Coca-Cola is a key sponsor of the All Blacks and in 2006 Zero will be the hero. There are ten $5,000 credit cards with a mystery key that can be won instantly from under the cap. The ten winners will be flown to an All Black’s test match to find out if their key opens the door to a Ford F1 50 truck worth $150,000.

Ends

Coca-Cola Zero is a registered Trademark of The Coca-Cola Company

About Coca-Cola in New Zealand

Together, Coca-Cola Amatil NZ and Coca-Cola Oceania manufacture, market and distribute more than 100 beverage brands and flavours in New Zealand. These include soft drinks, diet drinks, juices and juice drinks, cordials, waters, sports drinks and energy drinks.

Coca-Cola Amatil is the authorized bottler of The Coca-Cola Company’s products in New Zealand. The two companies employ more than 1,000 people and CCA has plants in Auckland, Christchurch and Putaruru.

Coca-Cola’s contribution to the New Zealand community includes the annual Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park events in Auckland and Christchurch in partnership with youth counselling and development charity Youthline. The annual Coca-Cola Careers Expo takes place in Dunedin, Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland. Our partnership with the National Association of OSCAR (Out of School Care and Recreation) has resulted in Go Kids! a national physical activity programme being made available to 750 out of school groups and tens of thousands of young New Zealanders.

For more about Coca-Cola visit www.coke.co.nz

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