NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, April 1, 2013

Simon Berry is piggybacking on Coca-Cola’s distribution system to bring life-saving medicine to the places that need it most.

You can buy a Coke pretty much anywhere on Earth. Thanks to a vast network of local suppliers, Coca-Cola has almost completely solved distribution, getting its product into every nook and cranny where commerce reaches. There are places in the world where it’s easier to get a Coke than clean water. In the 1980s, Berry was an aid worker in Zambia, and when he looked at Coke’s success, he saw an opportunity.

“Child mortality was very high and the second-biggest killer was diarrhea, which is simple to prevent,” he says. The standard treatment is oral rehydration solution, or ORS, which is essentially salt, sugar and water. “I had the idea of transporting ORS through the Coca-Cola system.”