It has been sold in Australia for decades with help from local celebrities and even become part of Sydney's cityscape. But now Coca-Cola is set to lose its local flavour.
Investors will today vote on whether to sell the Australian bottler Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) to Coke's European offshoot for $9.8 billion.
Investment analyst Paul Rickard owns shares in CCA and said the sell-off was highly likely.
"I'm voting in favour as I expect most shareholders will do," he said.
"Like anything, seeing an Australian company go offshore, we can feel a bit sad about it."
While its namesake has Coca-Cola in it, the Australian company that is being sold off actually started out more than a century ago by selling cigarettes.
It started buying up local franchise rights to the iconic American brand Coca-Cola in the 1960s and now controls the brand's production and distribution for all of Australia.
It makes the brown fizzy drink at factories across the country and bottles it for sale for outlets from supermarkets through to cinemas.
It also has the rights to Coca-Cola in several nearby markets, including Indonesia, Fiji, PNG and New Zealand.
As well as its namesake brand, CCA has the rights to a horde of other drinks from Fanta and spring water through to hard liquor like Jim Beam.
Over the years, as it has battled to diversify from its sugar-laden roots, CCA has also has bought stakes in other local companies such as Made Group, which makes coconut water and yogurt.
One of its more unpopular decisions was buying up Australian canned fruit company SPC in 2005. It pumped $250 million into it over 14 years and then sold if off for just $15 million profit.
Sale will see another Australian company go offshore
CCA floated on the ASX in the 1970s and was once a top 10 company.
But its share price has suffered over the years as it battled the rise of small challenger brands, the anti-sugar movement and subdued sales of the core fizzy drink.
Almost a third of CCA is owned by the US Coca-Cola parent company, giving it a controlling stake. The rest is owned by a range of shareholders on the ASX.
Two years ago, another global franchisee of Coca-Cola started circling: Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP).
After its low ball offers were initially knocked back, in late 2020 the European company made a $9.3 billion offer to investors that worked out to $12.75 a share.
In a sign that investors supported the sale, its share price has been surging since the takeover offer and is now at $13.46.
CCEP has now further upped its offer in February to $13.50 a share, increasing the total bid to $9.8 billion.
"I bought my shares in Coca-Cola a long time ago for $8. They haven't done much in a long time," retail investor Paul Rickard said.
"This takeover in many ways is a relief for existing shareholders."
The deal has already been recommended by the CCA board. It has also crucially been supported by Coca-Cola's head company in the US, which had a large hand in brokering the deal.
The sell-off has also been approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board.
That approval was needed because the sale would put a significant Australian company into the hands of an overseas company.
Investment banker and grocery brand specialist David Williams said the looming sell-off to Europe was part of a broader trend towards the re-globalisation of major brands.
"These things go in cycles," he said.
"What you've seen the last 10 years is foreign corporations based in Australia are starting investing in business development and specifically in Australian brands that aren't international brands.
"What you're starting to see everywhere in the world is internationalisation of the businesses.
"The large multinationals are having a shift in sentiment where they're looking at the brands with a large international footprint."
Given that CCA controls some Australian-only brands such as Made Group's portfolio, it will be interesting to see what CCEP could do with those assets after a takeover.
Mr Rickard said he did not expect CCEP to start selling off chunks of the business immediately, but that it may look to what other Australian brands it can buy.
He also thinks CCEP will review the company's operations in Indonesia, where Coca-Cola is still battling to catch up to its historical rival Pepsi.
Coke fans shouldn't notice much change
For the many Coca-Cola fanatics in Australia, it will likely not mean any change in the availability of the core brand, but may reduce local marketing.
Shane Waycott from the Coca-Cola Memorabilia Collectors Club of Australia hopes that they can still have a good local relationship with the European company to organise locally approved events.
In his years building up a 5,000-piece memorabilia collection, Mr Waycott has been involved in making local spin-offs like a Coca-Cola themed yo-yo.
"From a collector's point of view, when we design and do anything as a club we get support from the company," he said.
"If we want to design something, we send it over to Sydney, and get their tick off to say they're happy with that.
"If we don't have that local contact anymore it could make it harder in the future."
Investors will vote on the takeover on Friday morning.