Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (HBC) has posted a 6.4% increase in net revenue for the first half of its financial year, of €3.23 billion.
The bottling group said that its performance was helped by both the good summer weather across Europe, and the recent World Cup, of which Coca-Cola was a main sponsor.
If currency fluctuations are included, however, revenue rose by a marginal 0.5%.
Volume Growth
The group said that volume accelerated in the second quarter, resulting in a 4.6% volume growth in the first half. Its sparkling beverages volumes were also up by 4.6% for the half.
In established markets, volumes were up 0.9%, with Greece and Ireland putting in good performances, the company said, while in developing markets, volumes were up 8.9%, led by Poland and Hungary.
A good performance in Nigeria and Russia helped lift volumes by 5.1% in its emerging markets, the company added.
Operating profit margin was 9.6%, an increase of 60 basis points, however profit margins were affected somewhat by increased marketing efforts to launch new products, as well as World Cup activations.
Portfolio Evolution
“The evolution of our portfolio is gathering pace and gaining traction with customers across our markets,” commented Zoran Bogdanovic, chief executive of Coca‑Cola HBC AG. “We have delivered a strong set of results as product launches and tailored commercial activation enabled us to capitalise on favourable market conditions and the FIFA World Cup.”
“Revenue growth was excellent driven by both volume and price/mix improvements across all three of our geographic segments,” Bogdanovic added. “Margins continue to improve as we keep our focus on driving top-line growth and cost control.”
Looking ahead, Bogdanovic said that the group continues “to make good progress against the 2020 targets and expect to deliver another year of revenue growth and improvement in margins.”
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
