Coca-Cola's Belgian Crisis - The Public Relations Fiasco

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Case Details:

Case Code : MKTG097
Case Length : 12 Pages
Period : 1999
Pub Date : 2004
Teaching Note :Not Available
Organization : Coca Cola
Industry : Beverages - Carbonated Soft Drinks
Countries : Belgium, Europe

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This case study was compiled from published sources, and is intended to be used as a basis for class discussion. It is not intended to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. Nor is it a primary information source.

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"Our product is quite healthy. Fluid replenishment is a key to health. Coca-Cola does a great service because it encourages people to take in more and more liquids."

- Michael Douglas Ivester, Coca-Cola's Chairman and CEO in 1997.

The Recall

On June 13, 1999, the US-based Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola),¹ the world's largest carbonated beverages company, recalled over 15 million containers of the soft drink after the Belgian Health Ministry announced a ban on Coca-Cola's drinks, which were suspected of making over 100 school children ill in the preceding six days.

This was in addition to the 2.5 million bottles already recalled in the previous week. The company's products namely Coke, Diet Coke and Fanta, were bottled in Antwerp, Ghent and Wilrijk, Belgium, while some batches of Coke, Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite were produced in Dunkirk, France.

Children at six schools in Belgium had complained of headache, nausea, vomiting and shivering after drinking Coca-Cola's beverages, leading to their hospitalisation. Most of them reported an 'unusual odour' and an 'off-taste' in the drink.

In a statement to Reuters, Marc Pattin, a spokesman for the Belgian Health Ministry, described the seriousness of the issue, "Another 44 children have become ill with stomach pains, 42 of them at a school in Lochristi, near Ghent, northwest Belgium.

We have had five or six cases of poisoning of young people who had stomach pain after drinking (the suspect beverages)."²

The same week, the governments of France, Netherlands and Luxembourg also banned Coca-Cola's products while the company's Dutch arm recalled all products that had come from its Belgium plant.

The entire episode left more than 240 Belgians and French, mostly school children, ill after drinking Coke produced at Antwerp and Dunkirk. The company had to assure its British customers that the products made in its UK factories were safe.

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1] Founded in 1886, Atlanta, the US- based Coca-Cola is the world's leading manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of non-alcoholic beverages, concentrates and syrups. The company has operations in over 200 countries across the world. For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2003, Coca-Cola generated revenues of US$ 21.044 bn and a net income of US$ 4.347 bn.

2] "Belgium widens Coke recall as more children fall ill," Reuters News, June 14, 1999.