Coca-Cola sales rise as healthier beverages perform strongly

The Coca-Cola Company’s quarterly sales volumes beat analyst expectations, boosted by the double-digit growth of its Coca-Cola Zero Sugar beverage across all of its operating regions.

Unit case volume sales increased 2% and organic revenues grew 6%, which Coca-Cola attributed to the continued innovation within the sparkling soft drinks segment, as sparkling soft drinks sales increased 2% with the low- and no-calorie offerings of Coca-Cola, Sprite and Fanta performing particularly strongly.

The Fuze Tea and Smartwater brands also performed strongly, and sales from Coca-Cola’s water, enhanced water and sports drinks segment grew 5%, primarily due to the strong growth of water in single-serve packaging in China and Mexico, along with the growth of premium offerings in North America.

The company’s operating income grew 13% in the quarter, rising to $2.52 billion, though the company’s overall net revenue declined 9% to $8.24 billion, which the company attributed to bottling franchising costs, though this figure still beat the analyst expectation of $8.17 billion.

Coca-Cola completed the divestment of its Coca-Cola Refreshments Canada bottling division to Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Limited earlier this month, as part of its refranchising strategy.

During the quarter, the company also announced that it would acquire Costa Coffee for approximately $3.9 billion, with Coca-Cola claiming that the acquisition will provide the capabilities to build a global coffee platform.

Meanwhile, the company also made a number of leadership appointments during the quarter, including the appointment of Brian Smith as the company’s new chief operating officer earlier this month, as well as the appointment of John Murphy as the company’s new chief financial officer, effective from 16 March 2019.

James Quincey, President and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company said: “We continue to be encouraged by our performance year-to-date as we accelerate our evolution as an even more consumer-centric, total beverage company.

“The recent leadership appointments are intended to help accelerate the transformation of our company.”