Anyone fancy collaborating with Northumbria...? Or perhaps a Pan-English
group would make better sense...
SCOTTISH UNIVERSITIES MAY JOIN FORCES IN RAE
Scottish university departments are considering whether to enter the next
Research Assessment Exercise as a collaborative block in order to secure
greater funding, reports The Guardian. Following concern that the
government's plans for higher education would leave Scotland poorly funded,
the universities have been seeking new ways to give research groups the
critical mass and finance to compete nationally and internationally. The
Scottish Higher Education Funding Council has decided to support the areas
of physics, economics, bioscience and creative arts as pilots of this
collaborative approach. "We are bringing together pan-Scottish groups of
researchers in cognate areas who are interacting with each other on a
regular basis and we are getting many of the benefits of a large research
team comparable to Oxford, Cambridge, UCL or Imperial," said David Caldwell,
chief executive of Universities Scotland.
____________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Duncan Fuller
Division of Geography / PEANuT (Participatory Evaluation and Appraisal in
Newcastle upon Tyne)
Lipman Building
Northumbria University
Newcastle upon Tyne
UK
Tel (Direct): (0191) 2273753
Mobile: 07946 401359
Tel (Division Office): (0191) 2273951
Fax: (0191) 2274715
PEANuT: http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/peanut
Geo-publishing.org: http://www.may.ie/nirsa/geo-pub/geo-pub.html
> -----Original Message-----
> From: D F J Wood [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 21 October 2003 11:31
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: FW: Boycott Coca Cola: Ireland and Briefing on 'independent'
> Panamco
>
> FYI and especailly for anybody still drinking Coke (why???)
>
> David.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andy Higginbottom [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 21 October 2003 11:17
> To: Andy Higginbottom
> Subject: Boycott Coca Cola: Ireland and Briefing on 'independent' Panamco
>
>
> Irish Coca Cola Boycott Spreads
>
> The Irish response to the call for a boycott of Coco Cola because of the
> ongoing campaign of murder of workers in Coca Cola bottling plants in
> Colombia is spreading. On Saturday 11th October 2003 the John Hewitt Bar
> and Restaurant one of Belfast's best known and most prestigious bars
> became the first public house in Ireland to remove Coca Cola from its
> shelves.
>
> Then it emerged that the Cultúrlann McAdaimh Ó Fiaich an Irish language
> cultural centre and one of the foremost tourist centres in Belfast has
> also stopped serving Coca Cola to its customers.
>
> Now the students of University College Dublin the largest student campus
> in Ireland have voted in a referendum not to serve Coca Cola in any
> student union outlet on the campus.
>
> Campaigners for the boycott are buoyed up by the growing success of the
> call to boycott Coca Cola and are seeking to spread the boycott as quickly
> as possible to other drinks outlets.
>
> The quicker Coca Cola get the message and take steps to stop the murders
> and ill treatment of workers in their subsidiary plants in Colombia, the
> better for all concerned
>
> Now is the time to spread the boycott as far and as fast as possible.
> Individually each of us can stop drinking Coca Cola and urge others to do
> likewise. Make your view known to your local drinks outlet and ask them to
> withdraw Coca Cola from their shelves and stock an alternative.
>
> Among the alternatives available are Mecca Cola (www.mecca-cola.com) which
> can be ordered at TOPMARK, Carry and Carry distributors Linfield
> Industrial estate, Sandy Row, Belfast, 02890 435870.
>
> BRIEFING NOTE - Coca-Cola's Bottling Companies
>
> Coca Cola's website page on Colombia states that:
>
> "The Coca-Cola Company has bottler agreements with independent companies
> that own and operate 20 bottling plants that manufacture and distribute
> Coca-Cola products."
>
> This note looks only at company ownership, let alone common branding,
> company policies and practices that bind contracted bottlers to Coca Cola.
> Let us investigate just how 'independent' Coca-Cola's bottlers really are.
>
>
> Coca Cola's main bottler in Colombia is called Panamco Colombia, it
> operates 17 out of the 20 plants, and is a subsidiary of Miami based
> Panamerican Beverages Inc, (Panamco). Panamco was one of Coke strategic
> 'anchor bottlers'. In December 2002 another major bottler, the firm
> Coca-Cola FEMSA announced it would buy Panamco for $3.6 billion. This
> acquisition was completed six months later.
>
> Since, according to the South Florida Business Journal "Coca-Cola owns
> about one-fourth of Panamco", the buy out involved Coca-Cola Co. receiving
> about 304 million shares of Coca-Cola FEMSA worth $674 million, in
> exchange for its Panamco shares.
>
> While Coca-Cola Co. owned 25% of Panamco, it also already owned 30% of
> Coca Cola-Femsa. The buy out leaves Coca-Cola Co. with 40% of the combined
> entity Coca-Cola Femsa-Panamco.
>
> Coca-Cola FEMSA-Panamco will have revenues estimated at $4.6 billion and
> estimated annual gross profits of $1 billion. It is the leading bottler of
> Coca-Cola products in Latin America, and with about 10 per cent of
> Coca-Cola's worldwide sales, the second-largest Coca-Cola bottler (the
> largest is Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Enterprises).
>
> The significance of the overseas bottling subsidiaries for group profits
> is immense. According to industry analyst Milton Boki "Coca Cola obtains
> 75% of its profits outside the US, a considerable proportion of this comes
> from Latin America".
>
> The merger is seen as complementary in two respects. Geographically, FEMSA
> already dominated the Mexican and Argentine markets. Panamco has brought
> with it a leading position in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala,
> Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Through FEMSA-Panamco, Coca-Cola bestrides Latin
> America.
>
> As far as product lines are concerned, FEMSA is already strong in beer as
> well as soft drinks in Mexico, where there is a high consumption of soft
> drinks due to lack of adequate drinking water. With limited public
> services breaking down, and with service privatisations, failure to
> provide drinking water from the tap is a continental issue, especially for
> the poor. Public services are deteriorating, and the sale of bottled
> alternatives is an expanding market with the potential to increase even
> more rapidly. Access to the water market is part of the attraction of
> Panamco, and perhaps why FEMSA paid so much for it. As noted by Boki "the
> purchase of Panamco opens the possibility of using its enormous
> distribution and marketing system to sell bottled water and other soft
> drinks that are alternatives to the classic Coca Cola."
>
> The Coca-Cola FEMSA Panamco takeover was completed in June 2003. On 11th
> September, Panamco Colombia announced it would "stop production at 11 of
> its 17 plants to boost efficiency"
>
> We have seen that Panamco the bottling company is a vehicle for Coke's
> expansion into the Latin American drinks market. But this expansion only
> makes commercial sense so long as it is profitable for the parent company.
>
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