Coca-Cola takes $1bn hit

By Jonathan Birchall in New York Coca-Cola , that most American of companies, has been hit by a large writedown in the value of the US operations of its largest bottler. Coca-Cola Enterprises on Thursday announced a $5.3bn non-cash writedown in the value of its business, citing higher commodity costs and declining demand from increasingly frugal US consumers for Coke’s biggest... [read full story]