Coca-Cola will enter the market of alcoholic beverage

After remain teetotal for 125 years, Coca-Cola decided to try alcohol. The world's largest soft drink company chose Japan to test your tolerance to alcohol, adhering to the growing market of "Chu-Hi", a kind of "alcopop", as it is called the mixture of distillates with sweet, like fruit juice. The bet, which a senior Coca-Cola Executive described as "unique in our history," will take the American company to a competitive arena dominated by Japanese brands, Strong Zero, Highball Lemon and Slat. Chu-Hi is a canned alcoholic beverage traditionally made from a moonshine called shochu, ice water and flavouring. The market has hundreds of flavors and, according to the numbers used by Japanese drinks group, Suntory, growth fluctuated between 5% and 25% per year from 2013. Jorge Garduno, President of Coca-Cola's Japanese Division, said that the plan to enter that market "makes sense" and is an example of how the company is exploring opportunities outside of its main areas. "Coca-Cola always focused entirely on non-alcoholic beverages, and this is [a] modest experiment in a specific slice of our market," he said, adding I don't consider that people around the world should expect something of the multinational. Most of Chu-Hi canned have a alcohol content between 3% and 8%--a profile that put them in direct competition with beers and has proved particularly attractive to women. The appeal of Chu-Hi was enhanced by the tireless trial-and-error approach of the main Japanese producers – Kirin, Asahi, Takara and Suntory, which launched flavors such as yogurt, ACE and wild Basil. The Japanese market total of shochu, a distilled spirit similar to vodka made from potatoes, rice, barley or sugar that generate the alcoholic content of the Chu-Hi, grew almost 40% from 2011. The entry of Coca Cola on the market of alcoholic beverages occurs when the company, like other major food groups, faces a shrinking sales of soft drinks, your core business. As a younger generation of consumers avoid sugar, Coke has been investing in products for fastest growing segments, like waters and teas. The plans are revealed almost four months after an American analyst of Wells Fargo wrote in a report that Coca-Cola would announce soon your entry on the market of alcoholic beverages. At an event for investors in November, James Quincey, global CEO of Coca-Cola, not ruled out this step, without citing dates or details about alcoholic beverages, according to news published in the press at the time. At the end of the Decade of 70, Coca-Cola embarked on a brief experiment with wines, acquiring a number of vineyards in California and a wine company of New York. This culminated, among other initiatives, with the sale of wine in cans on United Airlines flights. Quincy said last month that the company has released more than 500 new products in 2017. "There is too much focus on innovation," said Quincy in an industry conference in February. "We are making innovations at Coca-Cola, innovations with flavors, ingredients innovations around the world, leading the mark to different categories of which before were present."