Coca-Cola Hellenic Q1 Revenue Remains Flat

Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, a bottler of Coca-Cola's products, has reported revenue of EUR1.37bn in the first quarter of fiscal 2010, flat compared to the same quarter last year.

Net sales revenue per unit case for the established markets remained stable, whereas for the developing markets decreased by approximately 8% and for the emerging markets increased by approximately 4%, in each case on a currency neutral basis.

Operating profit for the quarter was EUR51.9m, an increase of 41% compared to EUR36.8m in the previous year quarter. On a comparable basis, net profit was EUR25m in the first quarter of 2010, compared to EUR7m the prior year period, driven by lower finance costs.

Gross profit margins increased from 37.4% in the first quarter of 2009 to 38.9% in the first quarter of 2010.

Unit case volume declined 2% in the quarter, representing a volume improvement compared with the fourth quarter of prior year where volumes declined by 8%.

During the quarter that company, launched new flavours and packages under the Fanta, Nestea, Romerquelle Emotion and Rich brands.

Doros Constantinou, chief executive officer of Coca-Cola Hellenic, said: We improved profitability in the quarter, primarily reflecting the benefit from earlier cost cutting programmes and the favourable effect of currency movements.

“This result was achieved amidst a challenging economic environment, with weak consumer sentiment and uncertain financial markets continuing to adversely affect consumer spending across several of our markets. This led to a further volume decline in the quarter, however, the rate of decline slowed compared with the prior quarter.”