COCA-COLA BOTTLER EXPANDS CONTRACT WITH MANUGISTICS

COCA-COLA BOTTLER EXPANDS CONTRACT WITH MANUGISTICS    Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated, the second-largest U.S. Coca-Cola bottler, expanded a long-running contract with the Manugistics Group, a provider of supply chain software solutions, to include logistics management services.
   Coca-Cola Consolidated routinely has swings in sales volume from 200 percent to 250 percent from week-to-week for any particular product, due to frequent product promotions and price changes in the soft drink industry.
   Manugistics helped the bottler manage that volatility and reduce inventory using a Web-based collaborative forecasting solution.
   “We expect to increase visibility into our process and achieve measurable results with the roll-out of Manugistics’s Global Logistics Management solutions,” said Dave Hopkins, vice president of logistics at Coca-Cola Consolidated, which operates five production centers and 65 sales and distribution centers in 11 states.
   Manugistics, based in Rockville, Md., has more than 1,200 clients using its management applications, including AT&T, DuPont, Amazon.com, Boeing, Compaq and General Electric.