Coca-Cola's Central and Eastern European bottler misses quarterly revenue estimates
Quarterly Performance and Market Factors
By Simone Lobo
May 7 (Reuters) - Switzerland-based Coca-Cola HBC missed quarterly organic revenue growth estimates on Thursday, sending its shares down as much as 5.3%, as customers opted for cheaper, bundled drinks during the Easter holiday.
Promotional Strategies and Consumer Behavior
The bottling partner of Coca-Cola in Central and Eastern Europe and Africa has stepped up promotions and offers to draw consumers navigating economic uncertainty and rising inflation tied to the Iran war.
Coca-Cola HBC, which also packages drinks such as Sprite, Fanta and Monster Energy, said an early Easter raised marketing costs in Europe.
Easter Impact on Revenue
Easter offerings, which include multi-serve packages favoured by customers for increased consumption at home during the holidays, yield relatively lower revenue per case per litre than smaller packages, CEO Zoran Bogdanovic told Reuters.
Cost Pressures and Hedging Strategies
Consumer companies have flagged rising costs from higher energy and packaging prices driven by supply constraints due to the Middle East conflict.
Commodity Hedging
However, Coca-Cola HBC is "well hedged" on commodities such as energy, aluminium and sugar, CFO Anastasis Stamoulis said.
Energy Costs and Regional Impact
"When it comes to energy costs, we expect some pressure on production overheads and haulers. Even in that case, we are well hedged in countries where we can hedge, so utilities will not have an impact in those countries," Stamoulis said, without naming the countries.
Financial Results and Outlook
Coca-Cola HBC reported group organic revenue growth of 11.6% for the quarter ended March 28, below the 11.8% projected in a company-compiled consensus.
Growth in established markets, including Austria, Cyprus and Greece, was 7.3%, below estimates of 8.1%.
Future Financial Projections
The bottler forecast higher 2026 net finance costs of 45 million to 65 million euros ($52.9 million to $76.4 million) on the back of its stake purchase in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, but kept its annual organic revenue and operating profit growth forecast unchanged.
Shares were down 3.4% at 4,227 pence apiece at 0849 GMT.
($1 = 0.8510 euros)
(Reporting by Simone Lobo in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
