Arbor Investments recently completed the sale of its Fund II portfolio company Arbor Mid-Atlantic Bottling Company, Inc. to The Coca-Cola Company. Arbor Mid-Atlantic Bottling consists of two long-standing Coca-Cola bottlers, Sanford Coca-Cola of Sanford, NC and Northern Neck Coca-Cola of Montross, VA. Founded in 1907, Sanford has serviced its bottling territory for more than a century and Northern Neck has served the historic northern neck of Virginia since 1920.

Arbor entered the Coca-Cola bottling network with its 2001 acquisition of Northern Neck and appointed John Adams, the former Director of Bottling Operations for Coca-Cola North America and veteran of the Coca-Cola bottling system as the President of its bottling platform. Arbor increased its presence in Coke family with its 2008 acquisition of Sanford Coca-Cola, and built upon the companies’ longstanding track records of growth by driving market share gains and realizing manufacturing and distribution efficiencies.

“We think that the time is right to transition the business to The Coca-Cola Company,” said John Adams. “We believe that it was appropriate for these bottlers to be back in Coke’s hands for the first time in more than a century,” continued Mr. Adams.

“We’ll miss being part of the bottling network but after thirteen tremendous years we will always consider ourselves members of the Coke family,” said Gregory Purcell, CEO of Arbor Investments.