Coca-Cola Reports 2% Global Volume Growth for the First Quarter
16 Apr 2014 --- The Coca-Cola Company has reported worldwide volume growth of 2% for the first quarter and gained volume and value share in nonalcoholic ready-to-drink (NARTD) beverages.
Volume grew 3% in developing and emerging markets, with China (+12%) and Brazil (+4%) both accelerating sequentially due to strong marketing campaigns centered around holiday programming and the FIFA World Cup™ as well as a systemwide focus on execution. Volume in developed markets was down 1%, impacted by the shift in the Easter holiday from the first quarter last year to the second quarter this year. However, volume increased in certain key developed markets, including Japan (+3%) and Australia (+1%), while volume in North America was even.
Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent said, “While we are making meaningful progress across our five strategic priorities to restore our momentum, we are firmly committed to further advancing our growth trajectory through 2014 as we are accelerating marketing investments in our brands and focusing relentlessly on marketplace execution in partnership with our bottling partners around the world.”
First Quarter 2014 Highlights
•Global unit case volume grew 2%. Coca-Cola International volume grew 2% while North America’s volume was even.
•Reported net revenues declined 4%. Excluding the impact of structural changes, comparable currency neutral net revenues grew 2%.
•Reported operating income declined 1%. Excluding the impact of structural changes, comparable currency neutral operating income grew 7% while we accelerated investments behind our brands.
•Reported EPS was $0.36, down 6%, and comparable EPS was $0.44, down 4%. Comparable currency neutral EPS increased 5%.
•Gained both global volume and value share in nonalcoholic ready-to-drink beverages, with value share gains ahead of volume share gains.
•As part of the expansion of our productivity and reinvestment program announced in February, we are on track to invest an incremental $400 million in 2014 media initiatives in order to accelerate top-line growth.
•Cash from operations was $1.1 billion.
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