Coca-Cola hails marketing for profit boost

The Coca-Cola company has credited its decision to reinvest efficiency savings into brand building initiatives for helping to lift first quarter net profit by 10%.

Coca-Cola

The company, which owns over 500 brands including Coca-Cola, Sprite and Fanta, reported first quarter global net profit had risen to $2.5bn (£1.6bn), while net revenues were up 6% to 11.14bn (£6.9bn).

All major territories reported improved volumes. Europe, North America and Japan reported increase of 1%, 2% and 3% respectively.

Sales in the company’s developed markets, where growing health consciousness and struggling economises limited demand, were offset by gains in emerging markets such as India (20%) and China (9%).

In February Coca-Cola launched the first phase of reinvestment programme that aims to save up to $400m (£253m) in annual savings by 2015 to be reinvested in brand building campaigns.

Muhtar Kent, chairman and chief executive of the Coca-Cola Company said despite “a continued mixed global environment” the business was on track to reach the 2015 target.

Kent adds: “We are highly focused on creating value for our consumers, customers, communities and investors through our clear roadmap for growth, investments in our world-class brands, a productivity and reinvestment program that is driving efficiencies, and a global bottling system that is well-aligned for execution.”

Rival PepsiCo has announced plans to launch a multi-million pound marketing strategy, its largest to date, for its core brands such as Pepsi and Tropicana, as it looks to gain market share from Coca-Cola.

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