DSD in Crisis: Bottlers Sue Coke over Direct Shipping

This may end up being the story of the year, and it is not even happening in the beer business. In a development which has generated, and will continue to generate, intense interest within the beer wholesaling community, over 50 independent Coca-Cola franchise bottlers filed lawsuits against parent supplier Coca-Cola and giant publicly-traded bottler Coca-Cola Enterprises over a their test in Texas of shipping the fairly popular sports drink, PowerAde, direct to Wal-Mart's central warehousing system.Coke's two largest bottlers, of