Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) increased by $34.0m, or 10.0%, to $373.8m.
CCA’s return on average capital employed increased from 23.3% to a record 24.6%, primarily due to the double-digit earnings growth and disciplined management of capital employed.
Earnings per share increased by 10.1% to 28.3 cents per share. The result was impacted by an $8.2m net one-off taxation charge as a result of an unexpected change in tax legislation in New Zealand in May 2010. The effect of this charge to the first-half result was to reduce NPAT growth by 4.3%.
Strong earnings growth has supported a 10.8% increase in the fully franked interim dividend from 18.5 cents to 20.5 cents per share.
CCA’s group MD, Terry Davis, said: “Cycling the very strong first half of 2009 in Australia was always going to be challenging, so to deliver volume growth of 1.5% with revenue growth of 5.5% was a very good outcome.
“In the year to date, I’m pleased that the strength of our business model in effectively balancing pricing, volume growth and market share has provided the platform to improve our profitability and market position in each of our territories.
“The significant recent investments made by the company in capacity, operational capability and cold drink coolers, as well as successful new product and package innovation, continues to distinguish the performance of CCA from its food and beverage peer group.”
Source: Coca-Cola Amatil
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