Sales in Asia Pacific, including China, dropped 4 percent, but volumes increased after the company sharply cut prices.
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Coke’s sales in Europe, its third biggest market, declined 1 percent in the quarter ended April 1, while a strong dollar and weak demand in Brazil pulled down Latin America sales by 12.2 percent. Even if people are drinking less soda, the idea is that they will spend more when they do indulge.
Revenue fell 4% to $10.28 billion.
First-quarter earnings came in at $1.48bn or 34 cents a share, down from $1.56bn or 35 cents a share in the same quarter a year ago.
Original Coke, Coke Zero, Diet Coke, and stevia-sweetened Coca-Cola Life now will all have a prominent red disc on their labels – a color that many have learned to associate with full-sugar Coke. Our billion-dollar brands include Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero, Fanta, Sprite, Dasani, vitaminwater, Powerade, Minute Maid, Simply, Del Valle, Georgia and Gold Peak. As for the silver can, the company will consider “how it will integrate Diet Coke into the “One Brand” strategy” in the U.S. Coca-Cola has relied more on bottled water and juices as worries about obesity and other health effects from soda have risen.
In a move that will extend the Company’s “One Brand” global marketing strategy to packaging, Coca-Cola has announced the launch of new graphics that use one visual identity system featuring Coca-Cola Red as a unifying color across the Trademark. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.01. Shares of the company are now down almost 5% to $44.40 after reporting a slide in revenues due to weak soda sales. That’s a penny above what analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research expected.
As Coca-Cola faces challenges at home and overseas, the company has focused on slashing costs and transforming its business.
Excluding the impact of acquisitions, divestitures and currency movements, total revenue rose 2 percent.
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Shares in fizzy drinks giant Coca-Cola have fallen more than 4% after the firm reported a fall in profits. Breton Hill Capital Ltd. now owns 9,268 shares of the company’s stock valued at $398,000 after buying an additional 697 shares in the last quarter. “That said, with valuation moving higher and earnings likely flat to down until the back half of 2017 as a result of the bottler refranchising, we see limited room for further upside from here”.
