Market research
- Full-year net profits up by 20% to US$749m
- Net sales up by 23% to $8.3bn
- Operating profits jumpy by 27.5% to $1bn
- Sales, profits growth to slow on reported basis in 2012, bottler predicts
Coca-Cola Enterprises is hopeful that the Olympic Games will help it to build on rises in sales and profits for 2011.
Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) is looking to the 2012 Olympic Games in London to continue lifting the soft drinks bottler's sales in a tough economic environment in Europe. It reaffirmed guidance for a high single-digit rise in net sales for 2012, with operating profits expected to increase in mid-single digits.
For the 12 months to the end of December 2011, CCE's net sales jumped by 23% to US$8.3bn. Based on continuing operations and excluding currency gains, the firm's sales increased by 5% on the previous year.
Energy drinks Monster and Powerade showed the biggest volume gains as the firm's total volume sales rose by 3.5% for the year. Coca-Cola trademark brands also performed well, said CCE, which managed to offset commodity cost increases with a mixture of volume gains and price rises.
Operating profits for the year rose by 27.5% to $1bn, while net profits increased by 20% to $749m. On a like-for-like basis, operating profits rose by 9%.
In the fourth quarter, CCE's net sales increased by 5.5% to $1.89bn. Operating profits leapt by 34% to $180m, while net profits rose by 16.5% to $113m.
The bottler reaffirmed its plan to buy back at least $500m of its shares in 2012. CCE's chairman ad CEO, John Brock, said: "While we continue to face ongoing marketplace and macroeconomic challenges, the results from our first full year of operating exclusively as a European bottler reinforce the confidence we have in the long-term potential of today’s Coca-Cola Enterprises."
To read the company's announcement, click here.
Sectors: Company results, Soft drinks, Water
Companies: Coca-Cola Enterprises
