» Home » Business News Iraq Directory Services Plans Subscription Contact us Site Map Help About Iraq Coca-Cola to open Iraq plant June 28, 2005 Istanbul Coca-Cola Company's Turkish partner said it had set up a new bottler for Iraq that will see the soft-drink giant's first permament presence there in more than 20 years. Efes Invest Holland, which is wholly owned by Turkey's Efes Sinai Investment Holding, and Iraq's H.M.B.S have jointly set up the new firm, to be headquartered in Dubai's free-trade zone, Efes said in a statement to the Istanbul Stock Exchange. Efes Sinai Investment is the leading distributor of Coca-Cola beverages in Central Asia. "With the aim of continuing our dynamic and profitable growth ... a new company with the name The Coca Cola Bottling Company of Iraq FZCO has been set up," the statement said. The new company has signed a deal with Coca-Cola to be the sole distributor and seller of the US company's branded products in Iraq, starting on July 1, it said. The Coca Cola Bottling Company of Iraq, with start-up capital of some $165,000, signed another agreement with Coca-Cola giving it the option to acquire the Iraqi market's full production and bottling rights within two years, Efes said. "This shows our intention to establish the first bottling operation since 1980," a company official in Istanbul said. Coca-Cola drinks are imported into Iraq from Jordan, Turkey and other neighbouring countries. It previously had a presence in Iraq between 1950 and 1968, when the Arab League voted to boycott its products because of Coke's investments in Israel. After operating in Iraq intermittently in the 1970s, Coca-Cola shut down its operations at the start of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980, the official said. Coke's rival PepsiCo returned to Iraq in January 2004 after a 14-year absence mandated by international trade sanctions against Iraq after it invaded Kuwait. PepsiCo first entered the Iraqi market in 1950. Source: Trade Arabia © 2002-2004 Iraq Directory - All Rights Reserved