Coca-Cola gets global half-year boost
Half years sales for the Coca-Cola Company were up by 19 per cent to $16.4bn as a focus on cost saving and non-carbonated beverages helped push global volumes, according to the company.
Operating profit for the six-month period ending 27 June 2008 had increased by 17 per cent to $4.5bn.
Operating margins were down slightly by 0.4 percentage points to 27.7 per cent from the same period the previous year, though the company said it was moving to enact cost saving initiatives to offset rising costs.
Coca-Cola said that it had posted strong growth particularly within its portfolio of non-carbonated drinks such as tea and juice-based beverages and bottled water brands with combined unit volume up 13 per cent.
Globally, the company said this reflected growth through all of its brands, especially in emerging markets such as China, Turkey, India, Eastern Europe. Latin America was a particularly key market for the company.
Group president and chief executive Muhtar Kent said that the current soft drink market was proving to be particularly challenging for Coca-Cola, though he remained optimistic that the company can adapt.
"A strength of our system is the ability to work with our bottling partners and customers to understand the local factors impacting consumer behavior, while continuing to invest and build share for the long term," he stated.
"Both the fundamentals of our business and the strength of our brands remain solid."
Probiotic juice US bound
A new juice brand set to be released in the US will offer am antioxidant and probiotic rich beverage to tap into consumer health concerns, according to its manufacturer.
The GoodBelly brand that is launching nationally from this month has been formulated with the probiotic Lp299v in a bid by the manufacturer to offer health benefits.
The company claims that the strand of healthy bacteria has been clinically proven top benefit digestive health, while also including antioxidant rich berries to further boost functionality.
According to a recent report by research analyst Euromonitor, while carbonated beverages will continue to dominate the Chinese beverage industry up to 2010, juices and diet alternatives will be increasingly important within the industry.
Over the next three years, the market for regular carbonated beverages like coke is predicted to fall by 12 per cent, while demand for more health conscious beverages will grow over the same period by 24 per cent.
The product is the brainchild of Silk soymilk creator Steve Demos.