Coca-Cola to build research center in Shanghai

Coca-Cola Co. will invest in a new China headquarters and research center in Shanghai, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. The investment is a part of Coca-Cola's effort to boost sales in China.

The research-and-development center is expected to be finished by the end of 2008 and it will be one of six world-wide. It will develop products for China and other markets, said the company's president for China business.

With the completion of the new center, Coca-Cola will increase its staff in China to 200, from the current 40.

In the past five years, Coca-Cola has almost doubled its sales volume in China. Currently China is the company's fourth-largest market, behind the U.S., Mexico and Brazil.

In 2006, Coca-Cola China sold more than a billion unit cases of nonalcoholic beverages. According to company reports, it has an 11 percent share of the nonalcoholic-beverage market in China.