Coca-Cola Hellenic beats Q2 forecasts with profit up 7%

Coca-Cola Hellenic has announced that Q2 net profit rose 7% year on year even though the recession has hit demand for soft drinks in key markets

Coca-Cola Hellenic reported net profit of €194m, ahead of many analysts’ predictions. Sales volume in the second quarter rose 1% to 593 million unit cases. Net profit for the first half was down 4% year on year to €201m, while sales volume was up 2% in the same period.

Coca-Cola Hellenic managing director, Doros Constantinou commented: "challenging global economic conditions continued to impact negatively consumer spending and our sales volumes in the second quarter. However, we gained volume and value share in the non-alcoholic ready-to-drink category across many of our key markets in the first half of the year, which bears testament to our strong portfolio of products and marketplace execution.

“Whilst negative currency and channel mix trends adversely impacted our revenues, we were delighted to see the benefit of our cost saving initiatives, together with lower commodity costs, contribute to a solid operating profit performance in the quarter with comparable EBIT margin expansion. The successful integration of our acquired Italian business, Socib SpA, also contributed to these positive results.

“In addition, we achieved strong cash flow generation in the first six months, resulting from significant improvements in working capital management and lower capital expenditure.

“We expect trading conditions in the second half of the year to continue to be challenging. However, we remain on track to deliver our targeted cost savings of between €115 and €120 million in 2009, and will continue to leverage best-in-class marketing programmes and superior in-outlet execution to win in the marketplace."

Source: Coca-Cola Hellenic