Coca‑Cola CEO at World Economic Forum: ‘You've Always Got to be Thinking About Where the Consumer is Going’

Executives from The Coca‑Cola Company joined an international gathering of more than 3,000 leaders from business, government and civil society this week at the 50^th annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Chairman and CEO James Quincey and Chief Communications, Public Affairs, Sustainability and Marketing Assets Officer Bea Perez led the Coca‑Cola delegation. Here are highlights from some of their media interviews in Davos.

Quincey on CNBC’s Squawk Box talking about consumers:

“It's about satisfying consumer demands and consumer tastes... In the end, consumers are never going to drink the same thing, they're not going to watch the same program all day long. They want variety. We need to have a broad spectrum of drinks. And that's what we're out there to try and create.”

…on always pursuing ways to improve the business:

“We’re always trying to make things better ... we're never satisfied. Many years ago, the great creator of the Coke system, Robert Woodruff, said the future belongs to the discontented. And that's as true today as it was then. You've always got to be thinking about where the consumer is going.”

…on the future of plastics:

“The objective with plastics is not no plastics. It's zero waste. Our objective is against zero waste and a lower carbon footprint. So what we want to achieve with our strategies is to get the bottles back and make new ones. In the coming months, we're going to have the first market in the world, Sweden, where all of the bottles are made from 100% recycled PET. A total circular economy.”

Quincey on Bloomberg on recycling:

“The good news is that beverage packages, bottles, plastic bottles and cans are very high-value items and we can collect them back.”

Perez on Yahoo! Finance on single-use plastics:

“We believe in a world without single-use plastics. We're working very hard, and we share that vision with society as well as with other businesses who are setting collective action. We have to design-in sustainability and design-out waste and pollution. That means we have to have accountability to actually look at R&D and technologies in terms of using plant-based materials for packaging and look at using more recycled bottles.”

…on listening to consumers:

“If we're going to be in business and continue to make money and add value to society, we have to actually deliver on what society wants. They want us to eliminate single-use plastics. They want us to innovate. They want us to collect the pollution that's out there, and they want us to be better. We have to do that. And if we do that, we're answering the call of what society and consumers are asking us to do, and it will help our business thrive. We will be in business 100 years from now if we deliver on what society needs, not just what we need.”

…on discussions at the World Economic Forum:

“2020 is an exciting year because the conversation here at the forum is about stakeholders and how do we look at not just creating value for business but value for society… how do we actually leave a positive benefit for this next generation.”