Coca-Cola post strong Q1 results, driven by innovation and revenue management initiatives

The Coca-Cola Company said on Tuesday that first quarter revenue grew by 5% to $8.02bn (€6.17bn) from $7.6bn in 2018.

The company noted that concentrate sales growth of 1% and price mix growth of 5% in the first quarter were driven by consumer-centric innovation and solid revenue management initiatives in the marketplace.

Commenting on the results, the CEO of The Coca-Cola, James Quincey, said: “We’re encouraged by our first quarter results as our disciplined growth strategies continue to deliver strong underlying performance.

“We remain confident in our full year guidance as we continue to make progress on our transformation as a consumer-centric total beverage company.”

The company said it sold more water and soft drinks, including its namesake soda and Coke Zero in the quarter.

Total volumes rose 2%, thanks to strong sales boost across key markets within Asia and Europe, which partially offset declines in Argentina, the Middle East region and North America.

In Europe Middle East & Africa region, price/mix grew 10% in the quarter due in part to bottler inventory build related to Brexit, which caused concentrate sales to grow ahead of unit case volume.

Latin America saw 1% decline in unit case volume due to double-digit decline in Argentina caused by a prolonged recession and 1% volume decline in Mexico, partly due to pricing and packaging initiatives taken to optimize revenue.

While Price/Mix grew 4% in North America, unit case volume fell by 1% due to the impact of pricing and packaging initiative, in addition to the timing of Easter.

Asia saw 7% growth in unit case volumes due to positive performance across all key markets with the exception of Australia.

Net income attributable to shareholders of the company rose 23% to $1.67bn from $1.37bn in 2018.

Coca-Cola reiterated its full-year guidance of 4% organic revenue growth.

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