COCA Cola said yesterday that it sold a record 465 million coke drinks in the Republic last year, a 14 per cent increase in sales.
The company said its total share of the fizzy soft drinks market now stands at 45.2 per cent.
"One out of every two consumers in the Republic now drinks Coca Cola or Diet Coke every week. One in six consumers drinks Coke on a daily basis," said Mr Warwick White, the managing director of Coca Cola Bottlers, Ireland.
The increase in consumption followed a jump of 15 per cent in 1995. The company said it has set a growth target of 14 per cent for this year, the equivalent of an extra 65 million drinks.
Mr White said the Republic was ripe for such expansion because the consumption of soft drinks here remains significantly lower than elsewhere.
In Northern Ireland where Coca Cola is produced and distributed by the same company, four out 10 people drink a Coke or Diet Coke each day. In the US, per capita consumption of soft drinks in general is also around double that of the Republic.
The company said its strategy would be driven by the fact that 70 per cent of all soft drink purchases are unplanned.
Quoting the former chief executive of the Coca Cola company, Mr Robert Woodroofe, Mr White said: "I want to put Coca, Cola within arms reach of desire.
This would involve continuing to spend millions of pounds each year on advertising in the state - more than double the spend on all brands of tea and coffee combined - and an investment of at least £4 million this year in Coke vending machines and coolers.
As a private company, owned by Greece's AG Leventis, Coca Cola Bottlers Ireland, and Coca Cola Bottlers Ulster, are not obliged to report annual profits.
Mr White said that, while he could not provide sales figures for last year, the total north and south touched £200 million in 1995.
Including a third arm of the franchise, Coca Cola Atlantic, which supplies concentrate to western Europe, Coca Cola directly employs 1,313 people in Ireland.
In January, the firm announced that it would shed some 100 workers at its Drogheda concentrate plant. The company said yesterday it contributed over £160 million a year to the Irish economy in raw materials, payroll and others services.
