Cott

Cott Corporation

Type	Public
Traded as	TSX: BCB NYSE: COT
Industry	Beverage
Founded	1952
Headquarters	Mississauga, Ontario, Tampa, FL, Canada, United States
Number of locations	33 beverage manufacturing and fruit processing facilities, including 20 in the United States, five in Canada, six in the United Kingdom and one in Mexico, as well as one vertically-integrated global concentrate manufacturing facility in Columbus, GA.[1]
Area served	Worldwide (Except U.S.A.)
Key people	Chairman: David T. Gibbons President and CEO: Jerry Fowden CFO: Jay Wells
Products	soft drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, teas and water
Services	Private label
Revenue	$2.25 Billion
Operating income	$109.7 Million
Net income	$47.8 Million
Total assets	$1.6 Billion
Total equity	$622.9 Million
Number of employees	3,960[2]
Subsidiaries	see below
Website	www.cott.com

The Cott Corporation is a supplier of private label carbonated soft drinks distributing to the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Europe. In addition to producing private-label beverages for retailers, Cott also has portfolio of its own brands, including Cott, RC (excluding the United States, where it is part of Dr Pepper Snapple Group), Ben Shaws, Stars & Stripes, Vintage and Vess soft drinks, ready-to-drink teas, sparkling and flavoured waters, sports and energy drinks, juice drinks and smoothies. Newer Cott brands include Orient Emporium, GL-7, Red Rain Energy and After Shock Energy.

History

Cott Beverage Corporation was founded in 1923 by Solomon Cott, a Polish immigrant, and his son Harry, in Port Chester, New York. Harry Pencer, a clothier from Montreal, Canada, began to import Cott sodas into Quebec, Canada, in 1952. In 1955 Pencer acquired the Canadian rights to the Cott label and established Cott Beverages (Canada) Ltd., to bottle the Cott line of sodas. From 1976 to 1991, Cott expanded its distribution throughout Canada and back into the US and into Europe.^[3] During the 1960s and 1970s, labels for its products were printed with the slogan "It's Cott to be good". Vess Beverage assets and its division, Vess Specialty Packaging Company, was purchased in 1994.^[4] In 1969, the name was changed to Cott Beverages Ltd., and in 1991 to Cott Corporation.^[5]

From 1992 to 1996, Cott was headed by Heather Reisman, founder of Indigo Books & Music.

In October 2000, Concord Beverages, with its Vintage brand seltzer water, was acquired from Honickman Group.^[6] In April 2007, Cott was said to be considering a bid for Cadbury Schweppes soft drinks business.^[7] In 2007, in conjunction with the premiere of The Simpsons Movie, Cott partnered with 7-Eleven to produce "Buzz Cola", a fictional soda found in The Simpsons television series.^[8] In late February 2008, Cott was served notice by its key customer, Wal-Mart, that shelf space for some soft drinks made by Cott for them would be reduced.^[9] Nearly a year later in January 2009, Wal-Mart informed Cott it was terminating a 10-year-old exclusive supply contract under which Cott had been exclusively supplying the company with store-branded soft drinks.^[10] Notwithstanding the termination of the exclusive supply contract, Cott continues to supply Wal-Mart under annual non-exclusive supply agreements.

In July 2010, Cott announced its acquisition of Cliffstar Corporation, a US supplier of store-branded beverages.^[11]

In November 2014, Cott Corporation announced it had agreed a deal to acquire U.S. direct-to-consumer bottled water and coffee distributor DSS Group Inc for a fee of $1.25 billion.^[12]

Products

Red Rooster is a mixed fruit flavour energy drink brand aimed at the same market sector as Red Bull.^[13] It is packaged in slim 250 ml (8.8 imp fl oz; 8.5 US fl oz) cans or in 1 litre (35.2 imp fl oz; 33.8 US fl oz) bottles. It is available for purchase in the United Kingdom (UK) in Morrisons, Iceland, Total S.A., Farmfoods, Asda and the Co-op UK, in Mace, Dunnes Stores in Ireland, and in Match supermarkets in Hungary. Asda originally launched it under the in-house brand name of Blue Charge.^[14]

MacB is a brand of flavored water, mainly sold in Scotland. Flavors include Kiwi and Banana and Strawberry and Apple. The drink is currently the main sponsor of Scottish Premiership football team Partick Thistle.^[15]

Cott's 24, The Series is the name given to the 440 and 500 ml (15.5 and 17.6 imp fl oz; 14.9 and 16.9 US fl oz) can version of the product. It is sold mostly in UK discount stores. The name of the drink comes from the American television series 24. The drink's advertising slogan is "Every second counts!", which ties into the real-time nature of the television series. It is formulated with 32 milligrams (0.0011 oz) of caffeine per 100 millilitres (3.5 imp fl oz; 3.4 US fl oz). A diet version is now being introduced in some UK stores.

Blue Charge is the brand name of an energy drink, produced in the UK by Cott for Asda^[14] as an alternative to such products as Red Bull and Powerade.^[13] Marketed as an energy drink to combat mental and physical fatigue, it contains, per 250 ml (8.3 U.S. fl. oz.) serving, about 27 g of sugar (glucose, sucrose), 1000 mg of taurine, 600 mg of glucuronolactone, B-complex vitamins and 80 mg of caffeine. The caffeine in one serving is less than that found in an average cup of coffee (typically 100 mg/250 ml cup) or twice as much as found in a can of Coke (40 mg/330-ml can) - around 80 mg per can. A diet version has been available since the beginning of 2003. Diet Blue Charge is sweetened with aspartame, as opposed to sucrose and glucose, as found in original Blue Charge. The drink is described as tasting of 'fruit flavours' and an alternative cranberry flavour is available. It is commonly used by the British youth and student culture as mixer in alcoholic drinks, such as with vodka. The ingredients in Blue Charge, similar to those used in Red Bull, are: carbonated water, sugar, glucose-fructose syrup, citric acid, taurine (0.4%), natural flavourings, acidity regulator (sodium citrates), fruit and vegetable concentrates (apple, carrot, hibiscus), glucuronolactone, caffeine, inositol, vitamins (niacin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, riboflavin, vitamin B12), preservative (potassium sorbate).^[16] The drink has a high caffeine content (30 mg/100ml).^[16]

Cola is a carbonated cola-flavored soft drink produced by Cott's Tampa, Florida plant and sold in some Walmart stores. Outside the United States, Cott distributes RC Cola.

Most products produced by Cott are certified Kosher. Any certified product in the US or Canada carries a kosher symbol on the label.

Acquisitions

In 2012, Cott purchased Sangs Soft Drinks, based in Macduff, Scotland.^[17]

In June 2016, Cott purchased Eden Springs for $525 million from Rhone Group.^[18]

In 2016 Cott purchased S&D Coffee, a privately held coffee roaster located in Concord, North Carolina.

In 2017 Cott acquired Decantae mineral water ltd, located in North Wales, United Kingdom.

Corporate governance

Key executives

• Jerry Fowden, President & CEO
• Jay Wells, Chief Financial Officer
• Gregory Leiter, Chief Accounting Officer, Senior Vice President, Corporate Controller, and Assistant Secretary
• Carlos Baila, Chief Procurement Officer
• Marni Morgan Poe, Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary

Board of directors

• David T. Gibbons, Chairman of the Board
• Eric Rosenfeld, Lead Independent Director, President and Chief Executive Officer of Crescendo Partners, L.P
• Mark Benadiba, Corporate Director
• George A. Burnett, Chief Executive Officer, Alta Colleges Inc.
• Stephen H. Halperin, Partner, Goodmans
• Betty Jane (Scheihing) Hess, Corporate Director
• Gregory Monahan, Managing Director of Crescendo Partners, L.P
• Mario Pilozzi, Corporate DirectorL
• Andrew Prozes, Global Chief Executive Officer, LexisNexis Group
• Graham Savage, Corporate Director

Subsidiaries

Cott Beverages Inc.

^[19]

See also

• List of bottling companies

References

External links

• Official website
• Crown And Cott Innovate Excitement For New "24 CTU" Stimulation Drink Brand In UK
• Cott Mexico
• Cott UK