and accrues a liability and/or discloses the relevant circumstances, as appropriate. Management believes that any liability to the Company that may arise as a result of currently pending legal proceedings, tax matters or other contingencies will not have a material adverse effect on the financial condition of the Company taken as a whole. Refer to Note 13 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements. 

Recent Accounting Standards and Pronouncements 

Refer to Note 1 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for a discussion of recent accounting standards and pronouncements. 

Operations Review 

We manufacture, distribute and market nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. We also manufacture, distribute and market finished beverages. Our organizational structure as of January 1, 2007 consisted of the following operating segments, the first seven of which are sometimes referred to as “operating groups” or “groups”: Africa; Eurasia; European Union; Latin America; North America; Pacific; Bottling Investments; and Corporate. We revised previously reported group information to conform to our operating structure as of January 1, 2007. For further information regarding our operating segments, including a discussion of changes made to our operating segments effective January 1, 2007, refer to Note 21 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements. 

Beverage Volume 

We measure our sales volume in two ways: (1) unit cases of finished products and (2) concentrate sales. A “unit case” is a unit of measurement equal to 192 U.S. fluid ounces of finished beverage (24 eight-ounce servings). Unit case volume represents the number of unit cases of Company beverage products directly or indirectly sold by the Company and its bottling partners to customers. Unit case volume primarily consists of beverage products bearing Company trademarks. Also included in unit case volume are certain products licensed to, or distributed by, our Company, and brands owned by Coca-Cola system bottlers for which our Company provides marketing support and from the sale of which we derive economic benefit. Such products licensed to, or distributed by, our Company or owned by Coca-Cola system bottlers account for a minimal portion of total unit case volume. In addition, unit case volume includes sales by joint ventures in which the Company is a partner. Unit case volume is derived based on estimates supplied by our bottling partners and distributors. Concentrate sales volume represents the amount of concentrates, syrups, beverage bases and powders (in all cases expressed in equivalent unit cases) sold by, or used in finished beverages sold by, the Company to its bottling partners or other customers. “Concentrate sales” replaced the “gallon sales” concept beginning with the first quarter of 2007. We made this change primarily to replace “equivalent gallons” with “equivalent unit cases” as a unit of measurement for concentrates, syrups, beverage bases and powders, which better reflects how our Company conducts its operations. Most of our revenues are based on concentrate sales, a primarily wholesale activity. Unit case volume and concentrate sales growth rates are not