92 Business View - February 2016
reflects the diversification of the beverage market. Af-
ter all, our member companies now make many more
beverages than just soft drinks, such as bottled wa-
ters, teas, juice drinks, sports drinks, and lots of new
hybrids that are coming out. And the decision in 2004
was that we needed to reflect that; our portfolio is a
lot broader than the traditional soft drinks – and is be-
coming even broader every day.
“The other big change is that we were formed by the
bottlers and distributors of the beverages and the
large parent companies. The beverage manufacturers,
Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper, Pepsico - worked in partnership
to support the Association but they
were not officially member compa-
nies. It was in the early 1990s that it
was determined that the parent com-
panies should also be members and
pay dues to the Association. So, those
are our organizational highpoints over
the last, almost, century.
“At our height in the late 1940s, we
had 4,300 active members. Now, as
a result of consolidation in the bever-
age industry, where a lot of bottlers
have merged and the parent compa-
nies are much larger, we have just
over 1,600 members. That still re-
flects the lion’s share of the non-al-
coholic beverage market – about 95
percent. There are just fewer individ-
ual companies making up that share
of the marketplace. The manufactur-
ers, bottlers, and distributors are all
active members and they all have
similar voting power and ability to in-
fluence the Association.
“Our mission is to unite the non-al-
coholic beverage industry and to achieve good public
policy at all levels of government. So, whereas we be-
gan with a federal focus, we now represent the indus-
try at the city, county, state, and federal levels. And this
emphasis on achieving good public policy goes beyond
lobbying. We have a robust communications focus; ex-
tensive engagement with all kinds of NGOs (Non-Gov-
ernmental Organizations) that the industry interacts
with; strong social media engagement; and a science
and regulatory affairs department. But it is all under
a broad policy umbrella. My point is that policy is now
much more extensive and complex than the old days
of just gumshoe lobbyists who walked the floors of the
FOOD & BEVERAGE
