Swire Coca-Cola relocates its China headquarters to Shanghai

Swire Coca-Cola announced on Wednesday that it will focus its global strategy on China and relocate its China headquarters from Hong Kong to the Pudong New Area in Shanghai.

Cans of Coca-Cola Co. soda move along a conveyor belt at the company's Swire bottling plant. [File Photo: VCG]

The company signed a strategic cooperation memorandum with the local goverment on Wednesday. It will increase investment in the Pudong New Area and relocate its China headquarters to there so as to better expand its business in China, according to the memorandum.

As one of the largest Coca-Cola bottling groups in the world, Swire Coca-Cola has the exclusive right to manufacture, market and distribute products of the Coca-Cola Company in 11 provinces and Shanghai in the Chinese mainland, as well as Hong Kong, Taiwan and an extensive area of the western United States, which represents a total franchise population of 728 million.

In 2018, Swire Coca-Cola had annual sales of still and sparkling drinks of 1.6 billion unit cases, according to the company.

In the first half of 2019, the Pudong New Area attracted foreign investment involving 4.22 billion U.S. dollars, up 4.1 percent year on year. Eleven multinational corporations set up their regional headquarters in Pudong during the same period, including Apple and global sports goods retailer Decathlon, said Xin Yaqin, director of the commission of commerce in the Pudong New Area.