BYP6-3 The Coca-Cola Company hardly needs an introduction. A line taken from the cover of a recent annual report says it all: If you measured time in servings of Coca-Cola, a billion Coca-Colas ago was yesterday morning. On average, every U.S. citizen drinks 363 8-ounce servings of Coca-Cola products each year. Coca-Colas primary line of business is the making and selling of syrup to bottlers. These bottlers then sell the finished bottles and cans of Coca-Cola to the consumer. In the annual report of Coca-Cola, the following information was provided: _____________________________________________________________________________ THE COCA-COLA COMPANY Management Discussion _____________________________________________________________________________ Our gross margin declined to 61 percent this year from 62 percent in the prior year, primarily due to costs for materials such as sweeteners and packaging. The increases [in selling expenses] in the last two years were primarily due to higher marketing expenditures in support of our Companys volume growth. We measure our sales volume in two ways: (1) gallon shipments of concentrates and syrups and (2) unit cases of finished product (bottles and cans of Coke sold by bottlers). _____________________________________________________________________________