13.Commitments and Contingencies

Manufacturing Cooperatives

The Company is a shareholder of South Atlantic Canners, Inc. (“SAC”), a manufacturing cooperative in Bishopville, South Carolina from which it is obligated to purchase 17.5 million cases of finished product on an annual basis through June 2024. All eight shareholders of the cooperative are Coca‑Cola bottlers and each has equal voting rights. The Company receives a fee for managing the day-to-day operations of SAC pursuant to a management agreement. The Company purchased 6.7 million cases and 6.5 million cases of finished product from SAC in the first quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2016, respectively.

The Company is also a shareholder of Southeastern Container (“Southeastern”), a plastic bottle manufacturing cooperative from which it is obligated to purchase at least 80% of its requirements of plastic bottles for certain designated territories.

The Company has an equity ownership in both SAC and Southeastern. The following table summarizes the Company’s purchases from these manufacturing cooperatives:

	First Quarter
(in thousands)	2017		2016
Purchases from SAC	$	33,634	$	33,222
Purchases from Southeastern		23,336		16,968
Total purchases from manufacturing cooperatives	$	56,970	$	50,190

The Company guarantees a portion of SAC’s and Southeastern’s debt, which resulted primarily from the purchase of production equipment and facilities and expires at various dates through 2023. The amounts guaranteed were as follows:

(in thousands)	April 2, 2017		January 1, 2017
Guaranteed portion of debt - SAC	$	17,947	$	23,297
Guaranteed portion of debt - Southeastern		10,184		9,277
Total guaranteed portion of debt - manufacturing cooperatives	$	28,131	$	32,574

In the event either of these cooperatives fails to fulfill its commitments under the related debt, the Company would be responsible for payments to the lenders up to the level of the guarantees. The following table summarizes the Company’s maximum exposure under these guarantees if these cooperatives had borrowed up to their aggregate borrowing capacity:

	April 2, 2017
(in thousands)	South Atlantic Canners, Inc.		Southeastern Container		Total Manufacturing Cooperatives
Maximum guaranteed debt	$	23,938	$	25,251	$	49,189
Equity investments⁽¹⁾		4,102		17,768		21,870
Maximum total exposure, including equity investments	$	28,040	$	43,019	$	71,059

⁽¹⁾

Recorded in other assets on the Company’s consolidated balance sheets.

The members of both cooperatives consist solely of Coca‑Cola bottlers. The Company does not anticipate either of these cooperatives will fail to fulfill its commitments. The Company further believes each of these cooperatives has sufficient assets, including production equipment, facilities and working capital, and the ability to adjust selling prices of its products to adequately mitigate the risk of material loss from the Company’s guarantees.

The Company holds no assets as collateral against the SAC or Southeastern guarantees, the fair value of which is immaterial to the Company’s consolidated financial statements. The Company monitors its investments in SAC and Southeastern and would be required to write down its investment if an impairment was identified and the Company determined it to be other than temporary. No impairment of the Company’s investments in SAC or Southeastern has been identified as of April 2, 2017, and there was no impairment in 2016.

Other Commitments and Contingencies

The Company has standby letters of credit, primarily related to its property and casualty insurance programs. These letters of credit totaled $29.7 million on both April 2, 2017 and January 1, 2017.

The Company participates in long-term marketing contractual arrangements with certain prestige properties, athletic venues and other locations. The future payments related to these contractual arrangements as of April 2, 2017 amounted to $84.1 million and expire at various dates through 2026.

The Company is involved in various claims and legal proceedings which have arisen in the ordinary course of its business. Although it is difficult to predict the ultimate outcome of these claims and legal proceedings, management believes the ultimate disposition of these matters will not have a material adverse effect on the financial condition, cash flows or results of operations of the Company. No material amount of loss in excess of recorded amounts is believed to be reasonably possible as a result of these claims and legal proceedings.

The Company is subject to audits by tax authorities in jurisdictions where it conducts business. These audits may result in assessments that are subsequently resolved with the authorities or potentially through the courts. Management believes the Company has adequately provided for any assessments likely to result from these audits; however, final assessments, if any, could be different than the amounts recorded in the consolidated financial statements.