Under the strategy, Diet Coke, Coca-Life and the new Coca-Cola Zero Sugar will have a more unified look melded with the classic red version of the can.
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Coke has retooled its strategy to focus on attractive packaging, adding glass bottles and smaller cans that can fetch higher prices. The company says the focus is now on growing sales, even if people are drinking less of its sodas.
James Quincey, Coca-Cola’s president, also noted Wednesday that the economies of emerging markets have been hit harder than those of developed markets.
Despite the challenges with the Coca-Cola soda brand itself, shares of Coke have risen over the period where the declines in soda sales were experienced thanks to the company’s expansion into other product lines.
To keep up with changing tastes, Coke and Pepsi have also adjusted marketing for options such as premium water, bottled teas and juices.
The flavour will be “new and improved” to go with the branding, and promises to look and taste “more like Coke” than the original Zero product.
The rise in the dollar has also hit the companies, which have a sizeable presence in markets outside the USA, including China, Europe and Brazil.
The newly branded products will first be available in Mexico, where Coca-Cola is very popular, and then roll out to other countries throughout the year.
Coca-Cola’s profit slipped in the first quarter as the world’s biggest beverage maker was squeezed by a strong dollar and charges related to the transformation of its North American operations. Excluding items, Coke earned 45 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate by a cent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
“The penny beat on the bottom line is perhaps not as encouraging as one might expect, because you’ve got some softness on the top line”, said Vivien Azer, an analyst at Cowen & Co.
The net income attributable to Coke’s shareholders fell 4.5 per cent to US$1.48 billion, or 34 cents per share.
The Coca-Cola Company (KO) retreated with the stock falling -4.79% or $-2.23 to close at $44.37 on light trading volume of 40.34M compared its three months average trading volume of 14.79M. The net impact of structural items is expected to be a 3 to 4 point headwind and based on the current spot rates, currency is expected to be an 8 to 9 point headwind, including the impact of hedged positions for the full year.
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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research.
