7th Nov 2013 08:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - Greece-based Coca-Cola HBC, Europe's biggest bottler of Coca-Cola products, Thursday reported lower profits and revenues for the third quarter as it suffered a further decline in sales of water and tea and exchange rate movements went against it.
The company, which recently listed in London and moved into the FTSE 100 at the last review of the index, reported earnings before interest and tax of EUR207 million for the three months to September 27, down from EUR211 million a year earlier, while net profit fell to EUR148 million, from EUR156 million. Revenue fell to EUR1.92 billion from EUR2.02 billion.
It sold 3% fewer cases in the quarter, shipping 575 million units compared with 594 million a year earlier, as it continued to experience weak trading due to the economic downturn in Europe and as foreign exchange movements went against it. Revenue per case fell 2%, although it was up at constant currencies.
However, lower operating costs pushed up its gross margin, offsetting some of the revenue decline, and restructuring costs fell to EUR1.9 million, from EUR6.7 million a year earlier.
"We are very pleased to deliver margin improvements at both the comparable gross profit and EBIT level in the third quarter. This is a clear reflection of our ongoing commitment to improve our operational efficiency," the company said in a statement.
It said it would continue to push through operational efficiencies as it expects the difficult trading conditions to continue in the fourth quarter.
The company said it still expects currency neutral net sales revenue per unit case in 2013 to grow year-on-year, albeit at a slower pace than in 2012, and for currency neutral input costs per case to increase by low single-digits.
It expects to book just over EUR50 million in restructuring costs for the year as a whole, but to generate EUR30 million in annual savings from 2014 onwards. It expects the impact of currency moves to be lower than last year thanks to hedging.
Its said volumes of coca-cola regular grew 2% in the quarter, while sales of Coca-Cola Zero jumped 18% and sales of energy drinks grew for a fourtheenth consecutive quarter, by 2%. However, ready-to-drink tea volumes fell 11% and water sales fell 10%.
The company's figures are based on adjustments made for accounting rule changes. Excluding those changes, reported pretax profit was EUR194 million for the quarter, up from EUR186.1 million a year earlier, while net profit was almost flat at EUR147.2 million.
Coca-Cola HBC shares opened down 1.3% at 1,733 pence Thursday.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
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