Coca-Cola Reports Worldwide Volume Growth of 3% in Q2

23 Jul 2014 --- The Coca-Cola Company has reported second quarter and year-to-date 2014 operating results. Muhtar Kent, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Coca-Cola Company said, “At the beginning of this year, we shared our strategic plan to restore the momentum of our global business. As we now reach the midpoint of the year, we have delivered sound financial performance year to date and demonstrated sequential improvement in our global volume growth. While I am pleased with our progress to date, we remain focused on the work required to return our business to the level of sustainable growth we and our shareowners expect. For the remainder of the year, we will continue to focus intently on our five strategic priorities in order to deliver quality results and further advance our progress toward achieving our 2020 Vision.”

The Coca-Cola Company reported worldwide volume growth of 3% for the second quarter and 2% year to date, and gained value share in nonalcoholic ready-to-drink (NARTD) beverages, as we continue to leverage the strongest portfolio of brands in the industry.

Worldwide sparkling beverage volume grew 2% for the quarter and 1% year to date. We gained volume and value share in global core sparkling beverages in the quarter, as we leveraged our sponsorship of the FIFA World CupTM globally and activated our Share a Coke marketing campaign in many markets around the world. Worldwide brand Coca-Cola volume grew 1% in the quarter with Sprite up 6% and Fanta up 2%, reflecting balanced growth across our sparkling beverage portfolio. Importantly, we continue to see positive results in key markets where we have incrementally invested to drive growth. In China, steady execution of our new strategy coupled with strong activation of the Share a Coke campaign in June resulted in 10% growth in sparkling volume for the quarter as the company focused on driving increased sales of our entry-size single-serve packages. In North America, strong activation around the FIFA World Cup as well as increased media investments drove a sequential improvement in brand Coca-Cola volume.

“We grew worldwide still beverage volume 5% for the quarter and 6% year to date, with solid volume growth in the quarter across multiple beverage categories, including teas (+4%), packaged water (+7%), and sports drinks (+6%), partially offset by a 1% decline in our juice and juice drinks portfolio stemming from price increases taken in North America to cover higher input costs. We maintained global volume and value share in total still beverages in the quarter, and gained volume and value share in ready-to-drink teas and packaged water. While volume share in juices and juice drinks was down slightly, we gained value share in the category.”

After adjusting for structural changes, the Company delivered comparable currency neutral net revenue growth of 3% in the quarter, capturing global price/mix of 2% on concentrate sales growth of 2% in the quarter, resulting in 3% net revenue growth year to date. “Excluding the impact of structural changes, comparable currency neutral operating income grew 5% in the quarter and 6% year to date, and we improved operating margins while continuing to increase our media investments. The Company generated $4.5 billion in cash from operations during the first half of the year. After reinvesting in the business and paying a healthy dividend, the Company returned $1.3 billion in cash to its shareowners through net share repurchases. We remain on track to achieve net share repurchases of between $2.5 and $3.0 billion by the end of the year.”