Since merchants exist in the world a misleading argument that a merchant who earned 100 drachmas less than the previous year, when he had earned 1,000, has not earned 900 but lost 100 keeps being repeated. Any similarity with the figures released by Atlanta is not a mere coincidence.

The net profit of the Coca Cola Company grew 18 percent in 2009, with a total of 6,824 million US dollars. In the meantime, the company announced that its net income fell 3 percent in 2009 to 30,990 million US dollars, particularly due to decreases in Europe (down 10 percent ) and North America. In turn, sales in Latin America were considered "strong".

Together with annual results, data of the 2009 fourth quarter were released, where the net income of 1,540 million US dollars meant a 55 percent increase in comparison with the same period the previous year (995 million US dollars). In relation with the operating revenues, Coca Cola reached 7,510 million US dollars, 5.3 percent higher than 2008.

Muhtar Kent, Chariman and CEO of Coca Cola, stated for the press "We ended this year on a high note" showing "that we have the right ingredients for growth even under challenging economic conditions".

Kent also stated: "Early last year we committed to align our Company and our system to emerge from this global crisis stronger". Our performance results for the year underscore that we are doing just that.  Now, with our 2020 Vision as our roadmap, we look forward to entering our next decade of growth as we work closely together with our bottling partners to usher in a new era of winning for the Coca Cola system", he stated. But let's not get excited, there was no reference to how this new era of winning will reach workers.