2006



Dear Fellow Shareowner: 

Two thousand and six was a very good year for The Coca-Cola Company. We achieved our 52nd consecutive year of unit case volume growth. Volume reached a record high of 2.4 billion unit cases. Net operating revenues grew 4 percent to $24.billion, and operating income grew

4 percent to $6.3 billion. Our total return to shareowners was 23 percent, outperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500. By virtually every measure, we met or exceeded our objectives—a strong ending for the year with great momentum for entering 2007. 

The secret formula to our success in 2006? There is no one answer. Our inspiration comes from many sources—our bottling partners, retail customers and consumers, as well as our critics. And the men and women of The Coca-Cola Company have a passion for what they do that ignites this inspiration every day, everywhere we do business. We remain fresh, relevant and original by knowing what 

to change without changing what we know. We are asking more questions, listening more closely and collaborating more effectively with our bottling partners, suppliers and retail customers to give consumers what they want. 

And we continue to strengthen our bench, nurturing leaders and promoting from within our organization. As 2006 came to a close, our Board of Directors elected Muhtar Kent as president and chief operating officer of our Company. Muhtar is a 28-year veteran of the Coca-Cola system (the Company and our bottling partners). Muhtar’s close working relationships with our bottling partners will enable us to continue capturing marketplace opportunities and improving our business. Other system veterans promoted and now leading operating groups include Ahmet Bozer, Eurasia; Sandy Douglas, North America; and Glenn Jordan, Pacific. Combined, these leaders have 65 years of Coca-Cola system experience. 

Our Competitive Advantage 

Retaining our competitive edge requires an intense, unrelenting focus on what our Company is all about—beverages. More than .4 billion servings of our products are enjoyed every day—nearly

a million servings every minute. For 20 years, beverages have been our business, and we remain focused on being the strongest nonalcoholic beverage company in the world. With four of the world’s top five nonalcoholic sparkling brands, our leadership position is clear. And it has given us the expertise to lead in several other beverage categories: Worldwide, we are No.  in sales of juice and juice drinks; No.  in sales of ready-to-drink coffees and teas; No. 2 in sales of sports drinks; and No. 3 in sales of water. 

The geographic diversity of our Company gives us balance. As a general rule, when some markets are down, other markets are up. We are able to grow our unit case volume in spite of challenging markets. What did this mean in 2006? A year of flat unit case volume growth in North America

and declining unit case volume in the Philippines was balanced by double-digit unit case volume growth in other markets, including 0 percent in Argentina, 5 percent in China, 26 percent in Russia and 0 percent in Turkey. We will continue to focus on these and other strong markets,