The Atlanta, US-based, CocaCola Company surprised Wall
Street analysts, when it announced a better than expected
financial result for the financial year 2008.
After excluding one-time charges, such as restructuring
and asset write-downs, the world's biggest soft-drink maker
reported fourth quarter earnings per share of
$0.64 or 64 cents a share, beating analysts' expectation of 61 cents per share. It
clocked an even better EPS for the full year at $3.15, an increase of 17%. A visibly
upbeat Muhtar Kent, CEO, Coca-Cola said, "(The results) once again
demonstrated our ability to perform
consistently... despite an incredibly challenging
economic environment." He added,
"International operations, in particular the
emerging markets, continue to drive our growth, more than offsetting the challenges
that we are addressing in North America."
It has been Coke's third consecutive year of meeting annual targets with a
3-4% growth in volume sales. However, the firm continues to boost sales in
its home market, North America, where economic recession combined
with consumer's shift in tastes and preferences has seen a decline in the
sparkling brands in favor still beverages. In
fact, both Coke and archrival PepsiCo face continuing slide in demand in
North America, where the soft drink category has declined. Nevertheless, even as
the total case volume fell by 2%, the Coke gained market share during the
quarter, supported by its Olympic marketing campaign, once again laying huge
importance on such events that have a global reach and help create demand. The
company managed to grow both its still beverage as well as core sparkling
beverages during the fiscal. According to the
latest results, still beverage unit case volume increased 11% in the quarter and 13%
for the full year, led by strong growth across the portfolio, including juice and
juice drinks, teas, active lifestyle and water brands, while its international still
beverage unit case volume increased 17% for both the quarter and full year.
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