Reading headlines about Coca-Cola (KO), you would think the company will be shutting its doors soon.

Articles Like:

Make it sound like Coca-Cola is on its last legs.

People here Coca-Cola, and they think of the iconic soda; and they are right to – Coca-Cola is the global leader in soda.

But there’s more to Coca-Cola than soda…

Source: Coca-Cola Investor Relations

Coca-Cola is the global leader in:

The company has 20 brands that generate more than $1 billion a year in sales. And no, they aren’t all soda brands.

Of Coca-Cola’s 20 billion dollar brands 14 are non-carbonated.

It’s time we stop thinking about Coca-Cola as a soda business, and start thinking about Coca-Cola as a global beverage business.

Coca-Cola’s Simple Growth Story

The growth story surrounding Coca-Cola is surprisingly simple.

If people continue to drink beverages, Coca-Cola will continue to grow its earnings.

As long as more people prefer any type of beverage to tap water, Coca-Cola will very likely grow.

That’s about as safe an investment as can be made.

Fortunately for Coca-Cola, greater numbers of people in the world are able to afford buying the company’s expensive (relative to tap water) beverages.

Over the next 5 years, the global middle class is expected to increase by 700 million. Personal consumption growth is expected to increase 20 trillion. The image below highlights this growth:

Source: image below, slide 4

Margin Improvement Programs

Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent is focused on improving Coca-Cola’s margins. Margin enhancing cost-cutting moves in 2015 are shown below:

The company is also refranchising many North American bottlers and consolidating bottling agreements in other parts of the world.