Perhaps Mr. Woodruff's greatest contribution was his vision of Coca-Cola as an international product. Working with talented associates, he established the global momentum that eventually carried Coca-Cola to every comer of the world.
In the first two decades of the century, the international growth of Coca-Cola had been rather haphazard. It began in 1900, when Charles Howard Candler, eldest son of the Company's founder, took a jug of syrup with him on a vacation to England. A modest order for five gallons of syrup was mailed back to Atlanta.
The same year, Coca-Cola travelled to Cuba and Puerto Rico, and it wasiyt long before the international distribution of syrup began. Through the early 1900s, bottling operations were built in Cuba, Panama, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam. In 1920, a bottling company began operating in France as the first bottler of Coca-Cola on the European continent.

In 1926, Mr. Woodruff committed the Company to organized international expansion by establishing the Foreign Department, which in 1930 became a subsidiary known as The Coca-Cola Export Corporation. By that time, the number of countries with bottling operations had almost quadrupled, and the Company had initiated a partnership with the Olympic games that transcended cultural boundaries.
Coca-Cola and the Olympics began their association in the sununer of 1928, when an American freighter arrived in Amsterdam carrying the United States Olympic team and 1,000 cases of Coca-Cola. Forty thousand spectators filled the stadium to witness two firsts: the first fighting of the Olympic flame and the first sale of Coke at an Olympiad. Dressed in caps and coats bearing the Coca-Cola trademark, vendors satisfied the fans' thirst wlffle outside the stadium, refreshment stands, cafes, restaurants and small shops called "winkles" served Coke in bottles and from soda fountains.
Mr. Woodruff's vision of the international potential of Coca-Cola is still being implemented and refined by the Company, its bottlers and subsidiaries, building the Coca-Cola business into an unparalleled global system for providing a simple moment of pleasure.