Coca-Cola bottler HBC wobbles as Russian tensions hurt sales
SHARES of Coca-Cola HBC, the largest bottler of the soft drinks company in Europe, tanked yesterday after it warned that volumes would fall for the rest of the year, citing a “sudden deterioration” in Russia, its biggest market.
The world’s second largest bottler of Coca-Cola drinks saw its shares fall 5.3 per cent on the London Stock Market yesterday, to close down at 1,302p on the news.
“We continue to take action to mitigate the impact of the difficult trading conditions caused by depressed consumer sentiment and foreign exchange headwinds, while input cost pressures have abated,” said chief executive Dimitris Lois.
“We are pleased with our efforts to reduce operating expenses as a percentage of net sales revenue in a very challenging volume environment.”
HBC said volumes fell three per cent in the first half of the year to 27 June, with revenue sliding six per cent to €3.18bn (£2.5bn) and profits falling 11 per cent to €99m.
“For the full year, we expect the positive trends in currency-neutral net sales revenue per case, input and operating costs, combined with less foreign exchange pressure than previously anticipated, to offset the continuing challenging volume environment in our markets,” added Lois.