Coca-Cola sales fall flat on low Chinese and Latin American demand
Global drinks giant Coca-Cola’s share price fell more than three per cent yesterday after it reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue.
The figures
Weakness in the Chinese and some Latin American markets drove a 5.1 per cent fall in net revenues, coming in at $11.54bn (£8.8bn) in the quarter ended 1 July. Revenues were expected to reach $11.64bn.
Coca-Cola’s global volume grew one per cent over the first half of the year, but sales fell flat in the second quarter.
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Reported earnings per share (EPS) came in at $0.79, or $0.60 excluding items. This was slightly higher than expected – analysts in a Thomson Reuters poll had expected earnings of $0.58 per share.
Why it's interesting
The company said “challenging macroeconomic conditions” and currency headwinds had also hit growth. This was the fifth straight quarter of revenue decline. Sales in the US, the company’s largest market, grew two per cent in the quarter, though revenue fell in all other regions.
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Coca-Cola gained global value share in the non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverage market over the period, it said in a statement yesterday.
The company has lowered its organic revenue growth forecast to three per cent from four to five per cent estimated earlier.
What Coca-Cola said
Chief executive Muhtar Kent said: “Strong performance in some of our largest and most development markets, including the United States, Mexico and Japan, was offset by difficult external conditions in many of our emerging and developing markets, including China and Argentina.
“These factors combined to put pressure on our volume and topline performance in the quarter, especially where we own bottling businesses,” he added.