“The consumer environment remained challenging, impacted by the introduction of a sugar tax in January, on top of the VAT increase in January 2023 and the launch of a Deposit Return Scheme in November 2023. Energy and Coffee continued their strong momentum with volumes up high-teens (over 17% i.e.) and mid-teens (14% to 16% i.e.) respectively,” the report says.
The decline comes after the company recorded an 8.3% drop in volume in 2023 from the previous year, its latest report shows. This is the second biggest annual decline in bottler volumes for brands such as Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite and Dorna in the past decade, according to a ZF analysis based on data from ZF archives and the giant’s annual reports. However, as in the first quarter of this year, coffee and energy drinks were up more than 10%.
Coca-Cola HBC Group saw organic revenue growth of 12.6% to EUR2.22 billion and volumes up 1.8% to 632 million unit cases (3.5 billion liters). Eastern European countries such as Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic were on an upward trend, according to the report.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)