Coca-Cola HBC has raised its forecast for underlying revenue in 2024 following a “strong performance” in the opening nine months of the year.
The Coca-Cola bottler sees its revenue rising by 11-13% on an organic basis, versus an earlier forecast of 8-12%.
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The Finlandia vodka owner is forecasting its organic EBIT will grow between 10% and 12%, up from its previous prediction of growth of 7% to 12%.
COGS per unit case, comparatively, are expected to rise by “low-single digits”, driven by the impact of inflation and “transactional and translational FX”. The group had previously projected growth of “low to mid-single digits”.
In terms of technical guidance, Coca-Cola HBC also expects “scope impact” from its acquisition of Finlandia from Brown-Forman, announced last year, on comparable EBIT, to sit at €14m to €16m ($15m to 17m). Former guidance expected an impact of €10m to €12m.
In the nine months ended 27 September, the Fanta and Sprite producer booked a 5.2% rise in net sales revenue to €8.2bn, or up 13.7% organically.
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By GlobalDataVolumes were up 3.5% on an organic and reported basis to 2.2 billion unit cases.
In its third quarter, Coca-Cola HBC saw organic net sales revenue grow 13.9% and 8.9% on a reported basis to €3bn.
Organic and reported volumes were up 4% and 4.1% respectively, to 817.3 million unit cases, with growth seen throughout the group’s “strategic priority categories” – sparkling, energy and coffee.
Coca-Cola HBC CEO Zoran Bogdanovic said he was “pleased” with the group’s third-quarter results, which he said “build on the strength of our first half”.
He added “We are mindful of macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges as well as a mixed consumer environment.
“However, reflecting our strong performance in the first nine months and our confidence that we can continue to win in the marketplace, we are updating our guidance for the year”.
Sparkling volumes were up 3.9% in the third quarter, while energy and coffee volumes booked the largest growth, at 28% and 35.6% respectively.
Volumes of Coca-Cola HBC’s still drinks category grew 3.4%, with water up by “mid-single digits” and juices down “low-single digits”. Sports drinks grew in the “high teens” in the three-month period.
Earlier this month, the company issued a significant recall in Austria for half-litre bottles of carbonated products as a “precautionary measure”.
Coca-Cola HBC said due to a “technical error” in production “a very limited” number of 0.5l PET bottles could contain metal fragments.
The group did not disclose the exact number of bottles recalled, but media reports at the time suggested it could be around 28 million. Just Drinks sought clarification of the number.
Recalled products included Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite, and MezzoMix with best-before dates ranging from 4 February 2025 to 12 April 2025.
