The world’s largest bottler of Coca-Cola products, Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc, has seen its first-quarter net income leap, helped by the sale of a manufacturing plant and the launch of new Coke products.
Growth for its main carbonates, waters and juices had been achieved in the main markets in Europe and North America, despite the poor weather and tough conditions. In particular the company had been pleased with the new launches Vanilla Coke and diet Vanilla Coke.
First-quarter earnings jumped to US$27m, or 6 cents a share, including one-time gains, from US$9 million, or 2 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 6% to US$3.67 billion.
However there were concerns from investor that selling, delivery and administrative expenses increased 10%.
Unit case volumes, a key indicator of sales health, rose 2.5% thanks to growth in Europ. In the US the performance was more sluggish with volumes in North America up 1.5%, below the company’s full-year target of 2 percent to 3 percent growth.
The bottler blamed the late timing of the annual Easter holiday, which fell in the second quarter this year.
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By GlobalData
