Note 1—Business and Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Description of Business

Cott Corporation, together with its consolidated subsidiaries (“Cott,” “the Company,” “our Company,” “Cott Corporation,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), is one of the world’s largest producers of beverages on behalf of retailers, brand owners and distributors and has one of the broadest home and office bottled water and office coffee services distribution networks in the United States, with the ability to service approximately 90% of U.S. households, as well as national, regional and local offices. Our product lines include carbonated soft drinks (“CSDs”), 100% shelf stable juice and juice-based products, clear, still and sparkling flavored waters, purified, spring, artesian, distilled and fluoridated bottled water, energy drinks and shots, sports products, new age beverages, ready-to-drink teas and alcoholic beverages, beverage concentrates, liquid enhancers and freezables, as well as hot chocolate, coffee, malt drinks, creamers/whiteners and cereals. In addition, Cott is now a national direct-to-consumer provider of bottled water, office coffee and water filtration services offering a comprehensive portfolio of beverage products, equipment and supplies to approximately 1.5 million customer locations through its network of over 180 warehouse, branch and distribution facilities and daily operation of over 2,200 routes.

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying interim unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X and in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) for interim financial reporting. Accordingly, they do not include all information and notes presented in the annual consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP. In the opinion of management, all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring accruals) considered necessary for a fair statement of our results of operations for the interim periods reported and of our financial condition as of the date of the interim balance sheet have been included. This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q should be read in conjunction with the annual audited consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 3, 2015. The accounting policies used in these interim consolidated financial statements are consistent with those used in the annual consolidated financial statements.

The presentation of these interim consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes.

Certain prior year amounts have been reclassified for consistency with the current year presentation. These reclassifications had no effect on the reported results of operations. For the three and six months ended June 28, 2014, the Company concluded that it was appropriate to reclassify the amortization of customer list intangible assets to selling, general and administrative (“SG&A”) expenses. Previously, such amortization had been classified as cost of sales. Accordingly, the Company has revised the classification to report these SG&A expenses in the Consolidated Statement of Operations for the three and six months ended June 28, 2014. Also, for the three and six months ended June 28, 2014, the Company concluded that it was appropriate to reclassify acquisition and integration expenses separately. Previously, such expenses had been classified as SG&A expenses. Accordingly, the Company has revised the classification to report these expenses separately in the Consolidated Statement of Operations for the three and six months ended June 28, 2014. Additionally, as of January 3, 2015, the Company concluded that it was appropriate to reclassify certain recently acquired assets in connection with the DSS Acquisition (see Note 3 to the Consolidated Financial Statements) from inventories to property, plant and equipment, net to be consistent with Cott’s accounting treatment. Accordingly, the Company has revised the classification to report these assets under property, plant and equipment, net in the Consolidated Balance Sheet as of January 3, 2015. The impacts of the reclassifications are shown in the tables below:


(in millions of U.S. dollars)	For the three months ended June 28, 2014			For the six months ended June 28, 2014
Decrease to cost of sales	$	(5.8	)	$	(11.5	)
Increase to SG&A expenses	$	5.8		$	11.5


(in millions of U.S. dollars)	For the three months ended June 28, 2014			For the six months ended June 28, 2014
Decrease to SG&A expenses	$	(1.8	)	$	(2.9	)
Increase to acquisition and integration expenses	$	1.8		$	2.9


(in millions of U.S. dollars)	January 3, 2015
Decrease to inventories	$	(8.9	)
Increase to property, plant and equipment, net	$	8.9

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Changes to GAAP are established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) in the form of Accounting Standards Updates (“ASUs”) or the issuance of new standards to the FASB’s Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”). The Company considers the applicability and impact of all ASUs. ASUs not listed below were assessed and determined to be either not applicable or are expected to have minimal impact on these Consolidated Financial Statements.

Update ASU 2014-09 – Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606)

In May 2014, the FASB amended its guidance regarding revenue recognition and created a new Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. The objectives for creating Topic 606 were to remove inconsistencies and weaknesses in revenue recognition, provide a more robust framework for addressing revenue issues, provide more useful information to users of the financial statements through improved disclosure requirements, simplify the preparation of financial statements by reducing the number of requirements to which an entity must refer, and improve comparability of revenue recognition practices across entities, industries, jurisdictions and capital markets. The core principle of the guidance is that an entity should recognize revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. To achieve the core principle, an entity should apply the following steps: 1) identify the contract(s) with a customer; 2) identify the performance obligations in the contract; 3) determine the transaction price; 4) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and 5) recognize revenue when (or as) the entity satisfies a performance obligation. For public entities, the amendments are effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim periods within that reporting period. The amendments may be applied retrospectively to each prior reporting period presented or retrospectively with the cumulative effect of initially applying the amendment recognized at the date of initial application. We are currently assessing the impact of adoption of this standard on our consolidated financial statements.

Update ASU 2014-12 – Compensation – Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Accounting for Share-Based Payments When the Terms of an Award Provide That a Performance Target Could Be Achieved after the Requisite Service Period

In June 2014, the FASB amended its guidance regarding accounting for share-based payments when the terms of an award provide that a performance target could be achieved after the requisite service period. The amendments require that a performance target that affects vesting and that could be achieved after the requisite service period be treated as a performance condition. A reporting entity should apply existing guidance in Topic 718 as it relates to awards with performance conditions that affect vesting to account for such awards. As such, the performance target should not be reflected in estimating the grant-date fair value of the award. Compensation cost should be recognized in the period in which it becomes probable that the performance target will be achieved and should represent the compensation cost attributable to the period(s) for which the requisite service has already been rendered. If the performance target becomes probable of being achieved before the end of the requisite service period, the remaining unrecognized compensation cost should be recognized prospectively over the remaining requisite service period. The total amount of compensation cost recognized during and after the requisite service period should reflect the number of awards that are expected to vest and should be adjusted to reflect those awards that ultimately vest. The requisite service period ends when the employee can cease rendering service and still be eligible to vest in the award if the performance target is achieved. The stated vesting period (which includes the period in which the performance target could be achieved) may differ from the requisite service period. For public entities, the amendments are effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2015, including interim periods within that reporting period. The amendments may be applied prospectively to all awards granted or modified after the effective date or retrospectively to all awards with performance targets that are outstanding as of the beginning of the earliest annual period presented in the financial statements and to all new or modified awards thereafter. We believe that the adoption of these amendments will not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

Update ASU 2015-03 – Interest – Imputation of Interest (Subtopic 835-30): Simplifying the Presentation of Debt Issuance Costs

In April 2015, the FASB amended its guidance to simplify the presentation of debt issuance costs. The amendments require that debt issuance costs related to a recognized debt liability be presented in the balance sheet as a direct deduction from the carrying amount of that debt liability, consistent with debt discounts. The recognition and measurement guidance for debt issuance costs are not affected by these amendments. For public entities, the amendments in this update are effective for annual periods, and interim periods within those annual periods, beginning after December 15, 2015. We are currently assessing the impact of adoption of this standard on our consolidated financial statements.