Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED

Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED's office in Birmingham on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2015.

Birmingham Coke bottler Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED put a plan in place about a decade ago to double revenues by now.

Instead, it's in place to triple its revenues by the end of 2017. After several purchases throughout the Southeast, the bottler and distributor will have tripled revenues and cases distributed from the start of 2014; it will have taken employees from 3,000 to 9,500; it will have doubled its production centers and added 27 distribution centers.

Coca-Cola United's territories, including areas it has announced it will acquire but hasn't yet transitioned to operation.

The 10-year-old plan was to expand Most of that growth comes from expanded franchise area - Coca-Cola United has made a number of franchise purchases in recent years, starting with Oxford, Alabama, and most recently, Coke's hometown: the Atlanta area.

In 2010, the bottler saw an unprecedented growth opportunity and it took it. When Coca-Cola Co. - The company most people think of when they think of Coke and which owns the brand and the flavors - bought Coca Cola Enterprises, the biggest bottler in the nation, it changed the game for coke distributors.

"They began to re-franchise, and those of us who have grown our business and operated independently and reliably and have nurtured the brands have been given the opportunity to part of that," Coca-Cola United Company Claude Nielsen said. "What you've been seeing is the large expansion of regional bottlers."

The Birmingham company immediately expressed interest. In 2014, Coca-Cola United started its expansion with acquiring the Oxford Coca-Cola Bottling Company's territories; followed by expansions in Louisiana, Florida and Mississippi. Now, Coca-Cola United either makes or is transitioning into making all coke products in territories throughout seven states.

Claude Nielsen, CEO of Birmingham's Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED in the company's headquarters on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016.

In November, Coca-Cola United signed a letter of intent for a territory far more significant than any of its other expansions: Atlanta, Georgia.

"Atlanta puts Coca-Cola United in a unique market. It's the hometown of Coca-Cola, the headquarters of the a truly worldwide enterprise, and if you think about it, there's not a lot of truly worldwide enterprises," Nielsen said. "I think it's fair to say that this demonstrates Coca-Cola's confidence in Coca-Cola United, our abilities and our commitment to this business and to the Coca-Cola system."

And it's a system - Coca-Cola United's thousands of employees make the products, manage accounts, distribute products, and even do in-store marketing. Nielsen is detail-obsessed in describing his employees' duties, including making sure the paint on his company's distribution trucks looks brand new, polished, and just the right shade of red.

Moving into Atlanta brings quality control to a whole new level.

"I'll probably have 10,000 Coca-Cola executives evaluating our products," Nielsen said. "I can tell you that we take this responsibility very seriously."

Though most of the expansion means jobs throughout the territories, it does require some growth in Birmingham. Since the expansion began in 2014, Coca-Cola United has added 70 people in Birmingham. Most of those workers are service and support systems, and Nielsen said the company will need to add more as it implements the announced transactions.

"We've got a lot of really hard work in the near-term to integrate these acquisitions in a way that will sustain and improve our service," Nielsen said. "What is known to us is that there is plenty of work to be done."