Increased sales of Coke Zero Sugar helped The Coca-Cola Company record a 9% rise in net revenues last year.
Retail sales of trademark Coca-Cola were up 6% globally as the company continued to scale offerings such as Coca-Cola Plus Coffee.
Net revenues for the year stood at $37.27 billion while operating income rose 10% to $10.09 billion.
Within the company’s non-sparkling portfolio, juice and smoothie brand Innocent “continued to perform well”, led by products such as Innocent Plus, a juice with added vitamins.
Coke-owned water, enhanced water and sports drinks brands grew 2% in the quarter and 3% for the year, led by Ciel and Cristal in Latin America and “strong global growth” in the sports drinks portfolio.
Tea and coffee volume grew 4% in the quarter and 1% for the year, led by the performance across the company’s portfolio in Japan, Fuze Tea across Western Europe and Leão Fuze Tea in Brazil.
Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey.
Atlanta-headquartered Coca-Cola also benefited from its £3.9 billion acquisition of coffee chain Costa in 2018.
“We made good progress in 2019 by delivering on our financial commitments and growing in a more sustainable way,” said James Quincey, CEO of The Coca-Cola Company.
“We continue to transform the organisation to act with a growth mindset, which gives us confidence in our 2020 targets and our ability to create a better shared future for all of our stakeholders.”
Last year saw the company expand its Diet Coke portfolio, launch Aha sparkling water and introduce the first energy drink under the Coca-Cola brand.
Earlier this month, Coke acquired full ownership of Fairlife to take advantage of growth in the value-added dairy category in the US.
For 2020, Coca-Cola expects to deliver approximately 5% growth in organic revenues and a 7% rise in comparable earnings per share.
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