Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, and thank you very much for the invitation. I'm John Guarino, president of Coca-Cola Refreshments Canada. Joining me today is Sandra Banks, vice-president, public affairs and communications. I've had the privil

Foreign Affairs committee  On the....

Foreign Affairs committee  I've heard of the goals, but our company's view is we tend to not be looking at various goals like that on a day-to-day basis. I can get a detailed statement on anything we may have said on that. Our approach is generally to work on issues in our local area of operations in term

Foreign Affairs committee  I think particularly as it's related to many of the initiatives we do, depending on the country, whether in Africa or around the world, we can't do without government support, whether it's federal government, and very often it's local government, local communities. In Africa we m

Foreign Affairs committee  I don't know the exact number. We could probably get it. It would be well under 10%, probably below 5%.

Foreign Affairs committee  Depending on the country. It's not growing everywhere.

Foreign Affairs committee  Here in Canada we are not growing our normal water business.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, we are trying to sell our beverages locally. I think on water, in the grand scheme of things, we're actually a very small user of total water. We are working, as I said, with USAID, the WWF, and others in programs on water usage. As I said, we are committed to giving back a

Foreign Affairs committee  No. Water is a natural resource, and in some areas there are water scarcity issues, in parts of Africa as well. We've done many studies on that, working with independent firms on water scarcity and how we fit into that. It is certainly part of our planning, where we go in and put

Foreign Affairs committee  Certainly I don't want to get into.... We are concerned about having access to enough water and that we are able to replenish what we use. There are very different areas where there are water problems.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. First of all, given that much of our business is in the developing markets, we feel that the role of women in our business has not been represented properly. Many people think of us as a heavy business—lifting, bottling, cases—but the truth is that we

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. I mean, I couldn't point to scientific data, but we know they're becoming a pillar. Their husbands will still most likely have a job and be gone during the day, but running their own business allows them to be flexible in terms of what they're doing, both in terms of generat

Foreign Affairs committee  We will advertise for them locally, and that can be very different things in different countries, but we are a very local business. As you said, you can find us pretty much everywhere, so we know what's going on in the areas. We will actively search out. We will say that this is

Foreign Affairs committee  We are starting business in South Sudan, which is a challenging market. At every facility we have to do a water assessment in terms of the sourcing and look at how we are servicing the water, what our usage rate would be there, and we also look at how we can. We've done them in C

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. I can say first that we are expanding our juice portfolio and getting broader distribution. Refrigeration is part of having shelf-stable products, and the fortified beverage we've rolled out this year allows us to do that without refrigeration. Specifically, yes. We've talk