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(Alliance News) - Coca-Cola HBC AG said Thursday that 2019 was another strong year for the company, with strong fourth quarter revenue growth offsetting the impact of bad weather in the first and second quarters of the year.
The company, which bottles Coca-Cola and other soft drinks, reported a 3.3% volume rise to 2.26 billion unit cases in 2019 from 2.2 billion in 2018.
Net sales revenue was up 5.5% to EUR7.0 billion from EUR6.6 billion a year ago.
Operating profit jumped 12% to EUR715.3 million from EUR639.4 million a year ago, helped by demand in emerging markets. Pretax profit rose 8.2% to EUR661.2 million compared to EUR610.9 million in 2018.
The company said all market segments - established, developing and emerging - delivered revenue growth, as well as its three main markets in Russia, Italy and Nigeria.
Coca Cola said the first and second quarter of 2019 was impacted by bad weather, but strong revenue growth in the final quarter offset the year's early weakness.
"According to external forecasts for 2020, the economic outlook in our territories continues to be healthy and this we expect will support the final year of our 2020 plan and progress the business towards our 2025 targets," the company noted.
Zoran Bogdanovic, chief executive officer, said: We enter 2020 with considerable momentum and exciting plans that include the roll-out of Costa Coffee in at least 10 of our markets."
The US's Coca-Cola Co bought the coffee house chain for GBP3.9 billion off Whitbread PLC at the start of 2019.
"We are confident that we are well on track to deliver our 2020 commitments and to make solid progress on our 2025 growth agenda," Bogdanovic added.
Coca Cola shares were trading 3.6% higher in London at 2,888.00 pence each on Thursday.
By Loreta Juodagalvyte; loretajuodagalvyte@alliancenews.com
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