Coca-Cola Inks Italian Coffee Drink Joint Venture

Trieste, Italy (AHN) - Beverage company Coca-Cola announced Thursday it finalized a joint venture with illycaffe SpA that will be introducing three coffee drinks in Europe next month.

Through Ilko Coffee International, canned caffee, cappuccino and latte macchiato drinks will be made available in countries including Austria, Croatia, Greece and the Ukraine.

Milan, Italy-based Ilko Coffee will be headed by Coca-Cola executive Vinay Kapoor.

Coca-Cola will also introduce the drinks to additional countries such as Asia, North America and the Pacific during the rest of the year and into 2009.