www.foodtechnology.co.nz 17
ON THE LOOKOUT
FOR THE FUTURE
Coca-Cola Amatil has announced the launch of Amatil X,
a new platform for emerging possibilities to power growth
beyond Coca-Cola Amatil’s core business.
The new venture will support the
development of concepts, start-ups and
early-stage businesses that anticipate
and address customer needs, and is a
way for Coca-Cola Amatil to find new avenues
of growth. Group managing director Alison
Watkins says the world of customers is changing
quickly, with increasing expectations driven by
technology. “While remaining focused on our
core is critical, we need to find new avenues
of growth. We want to continue to challenge
ourselves to provide our customers with ‘Only
at Amatil’ experiences,” she says. At the core
is AX Ventures, a multi-million dollar corporate
venturing programme that has been set up to
invest in future revenue growth opportunities
outside of Amatil’s current business - and
beyond innovation in beverages which sit within
the core business. Investment opportunities will
be identified via two avenues:
Xcelerate - a corporate accelerator programme
to operate in New Zealand and Australia
powered by leading start-up accelerator
BlueChilli. Xcelerate will seek applications from
entrepreneurs and early-stage companies,
gaining first-hand access to emerging
technologies and trends; building a pipeline
of investible businesses; and supporting the
overall start-up ecosystem in New Zealand and
Australia. Applications for Xcelerate opened last
month.
Xponential – an employee venturing programme.
Xponential will leverage Amatil’s existing
innovation programmes and other initiatives to
identify internal opportunities for AX Ventures to
invest.
Importantly, the programmes within AmatilX are
not open to proposals for new beverages, and do
not compete with existing innovation pipelines
provided by brand partners including The Coca-
Cola Company, Watkins says. Instead, there are
three broad themes:
• Millions of moments of impact: concepts for
creating a sustainable future
• One step ahead: concepts for redefining the
customer experience; and
• Route to me: concepts for exploring
alternative ways of getting customers what
they want, when and where they want it.
The programmes will leverage Coca-Cola
Amatil’s ability to rapidly test and validate
relevant ideas and prototype solutions which
improve the customer experience or create
potential revenue streams.
At the end of the programme, AX Ventures
will review participants for further investment.
“Our team has been examining rapidly evolving
companies across various sectors in Australia
and overseas for the past six months,” Watkins
says. “The result is Amatil X. Our aspiration is for
Amatil X to set the benchmark for how to bridge
the gap between large established corporations
and the agility and innovation of start-up
businesses, so that we leverage entrepreneurs
to help fuel our growth agenda. We are investing
today for tomorrow’s growth. We want the startup
community to know we’re open for business
and supporting both the start-up community
ecosystem, and the New Zealand and Australian
economies.” www.ccamatil.com
/www.foodtechnology.co.nz
/www.ccamatil.com
