Billion-Dollar CEO Troy Taylor Tells Black Business Owners How To Win

Every year, our editors witness some fascinating companies among the freshman class of the be 100s—the nation’s largest black-owned businesses.

- Derek T. Dingle

And the 2018 list has one newcomer that vaulted to the leadership of the TOP 100 as a member of the exclusive billion-dollar revenue club: Tampa, Florida-based Coca-Cola Beverages Florida L.L.C. (No. 5 on the TOP 100 list with $1.2 billion in revenues).

The man responsible for its effervescent sales growth is Troy Taylor, the Lafayette, Louisiana, native and former banker who has oversight of a bottler that produces and distributes more than 600 products of the Coca-Cola Co. and partner entities across an exclusive territory, covering over 18 million consumers in the major metropolitan markets of Miami, Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville. With four manufacturing centers, 17 sales and distribution locations statewide, and 4,600 employees, Florida Coke serves huge customers like Disney, the NFL Tampa Buccaneers, and local airports.

There hasn’t been another black-owned Coke bottler among America’s largest black-owned businesses since Philadelphia CocaCola Bottling Co., a franchise in which consummate deal maker J. Bruce Llewellyn and former NBA superstar–cum-business owner Julius “Dr. J.” Erving acquired majority ownership in 1985. It would remain among the list leaders on the INDUSTRIAL/SERVICE list until 2010.

The Marshall University graduate sought soft drink bottling opportunities after he left JP Morgan Chase, where he counseled CEOs in the oil and gas industries. When he opened his investment advisory firm in 2002, Taylor served as a consultant to Coca-Cola as well as to one of its largest independent bottlers in the world. Through the experience, he quenched his thirst for knowledge about the beverage distribution sector while increasing his Rolodex of contacts.