Every morning in the summer, a fleet of brightly decorated red and white tricycles - pedalled by smartly dressed entrepreneurs - arrives at distribution centres in Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou to fill up their coolers with Coke.
They are the foot soldiers in Coca-Cola's battle for market share, the outcome of which depends greatly on the success of the company's distribution campaign.
In Shanghai and a few other major cities, where traffic regulations forbid trucks from entering residential areas between 8 am and 8 pm, Coke turned to tricyclists to bring its product to the people. Elsewhere in China, where infrastructure development is still in its infancy, the company uses a range of distribution solutions, from trucks and railway cars to mules and porters with bamboo carrying poles.
'We don't care if the distributors are public, private, foreign or collective as long as they buy our product, pay a good price and distribute where we need the product to go,' Coca-Cola China vice-president Lo Bing-chung said.
By the end of next year, the soft drinks giant's growing network of bottling plants, distributors and marketing in China will be worth US$500 million and will bring Coke within reach of 900 million of China's 1.2 billion citizens.
Some Coke is distributed through big state-owned trading companies such as Sugar, Wine and Tobacco Co, and China National Cereals, Oil and Foodstuffs Import/Export Corp, which are cheap but less efficient. Mr Lo said the company also relied on second-tier wholesalers, most of which are also state-owned. They too are not too concerned with service but can move the product in bulk.