Coke reports 9% revenue increase for Q3

Coca-Cola Company has posted a 9% increase in net revenue for the third quarter of the year and says that it will continue to focus on “effectiveness and efficiency”.

The news comes a day after rival PepsiCo announced that it is cutting 3,300 jobs worldwide after reporting a 9.5 per cent fall in pre-tax profits for its third quarter.

Coca-Cola reported a 16% increase in pre-tax profit to $2.4m (£1.39m) on operating revenues up 9 per net to $8.4m (£4.8m). Pre-tax profits for year-to-date are $6.3m (£3.5m).

Unit case volume increased 5% in the third quarter and 4% year-to-date. International operations delivered 7% unit case volume growth driven by emerging markets.

Europe saw unit case volume increase by 3% for the quarter and 2% for the year-to-date with pre-tax profit up for year-to-date by 15% to $2.5m (£1.5m).

But North America continued to see unit case volume drop with a 2% fall for the quarter and 1% for the year-to-date, with net revenues dropping by 2%.

Muhtar Kent, Coke president and chief executive, says: “We once again demonstrated our ability to perform consistently, delivering our eighth consecutive quarter of double digit comparable earnings growth, despite an incredibly challenging economic environment.”

He adds that there would be an increased focus on investment and efficiency and “continued investment” behind the brands. He say: “Our system’s ability to adapt to changing economic and consumer environments was key to our success during the quarter, and we believe this adaptability will continue to be crucial to the business going forward.”