Coca-Cola Beverages Florida, LLC (Coke Florida), the third largest privately held and the sixth largest independent Coca-Cola bottler in the United States, announced it has entered into an agreement for a new $350 million senior unsecured revolving credit facility. The Credit Facility will provide the company with additional financial flexibility to invest in growth-oriented capital projects.
Coke Florida operates in an exclusive territory that covers 47 Florida counties and serves over 21 million consumers. The company produces Coca-Cola products in four strategically located manufacturing facilities and delivers its beverages through a network of 18 sales and distribution centers. Established in 2015, Coke Florida is recognized as one of the largest Black-owned businesses in the United States and the largest Black-owned business in Florida.
"As we complete another year of record performance at Coke Florida, this expanded Credit Facility gives us an even stronger capital structure and additional capacity to aggressively invest in our business," said Thomas Benford, president and chief operating officer of Coke Florida. "In addition to using proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes, this will allow us to accelerate capital investments in new facilities, secure new delivery fleet and service vehicles, and to pursue new automation and digitization technologies. We look forward to better serving our loyal customers along with positioning the business to support future growth in the state of Florida."
With a five-year maturity and a $200 million accordion feature, the new Credit Facility replaces Coke Florida's previous $325 million agreement. Borrowings under the new Credit Facility will bear interest at a rate of SOFR plus 0.75% to 1.25%, depending on Coke Florida's leverage ratio.
"Similar to our other recent capital raises, this Credit Facility was oversubscribed, validating our strong performance despite the pandemic and more recent economic challenges, and enabling us to welcome two new banks into our banking group," said Duane Still, Coke Florida’s chief financial officer. "We expect to take full advantage of the lower overall cost of borrowing and the additional capital capacity we will realize to execute strategic investments throughout the Facility's term."
