Coca-Cola Widens Its Lead Over PepsiCo

Coca-Cola Co. widened its domestic lead over rival soft-drink maker PepsiCo Inc. in 1997, according to new data, as sales of Sprite continued to rise at a double-digit pace. Coca-Cola’s share of the estimated $53-billion market increased by 0.8 percentage point, according to a survey by industry publication Beverage Digest and Davenport & Co. analyst John C. Maxwell Jr. PepsiCo’s share, meanwhile, fell 0.1 point. The results show that the Atlanta-based beverage giant still needs to gain 6 percentage points to reach its stated goal of 50% domestic market share by the end of the century. Overall, Coca-Cola had a 43.9% share of U.S. case sales in 1997, compared with PepsiCo’s 30.9%. That’s up from Coke’s 1996 lead of 43.1% over Pepsi’s 31%. The spread between the companies is the widest it has been since 1977. In New York Stock Exchange trading, Coca-Cola shares rose 38 cents to close at $69.25, and Pepsi shares rose 38 cents to $36.