Coke plans US$80m R&D center in Shanghai

Coca Cola will invest US$80 million in a new China headquarters and research and development facility in Shanghai, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company's China president, Douglas Jackson, said that having an R&D center here "is going to be great in terms of speed to market". The center, one of six Coca Cola R&D facilities worldwide, will be completed by the end of 2008 and have a staff of 200. The company currently has 40 R&D workers in China. In the past five years, China has become Coca Cola's fourth-largest market, behind the US, Mexico and Brazil. The company said it had an 11% share of China's non-alcoholic beverage market in 2006.