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Coca-Cola HBC AG, a consumer packaged goods business and strategic bottling partner of The Coca-Cola Company, has reported a 14.7% rise in revenues for the six months to the end of June.
According to its interim results, the ongoing recovery from the pandemic has played a significant part in driving momentum and share gains across the second quarter of the year, with H1 FX-neutral revenue growth up 23.1% on a like for like basis.
The company has reported that €120 million of COVID-related opex savings were achieved in 2020 and it expects to retain roughly €20 million of this in 2021. Therefore €100 million of these costs to return in H2 2021.
It said that its roll out of Costa Coffee continues to progress well. Its 'Coffee strategy' has been strengthened with premium Italian brand, Caffè Vergnano, which is expected to start distribution by 2022.
Zoran Bogdanovic, chief executive officer of Coca-Cola HBC AG, said: 'These results demonstrate the power of our 24/7 portfolio, our revenue growth management actions, the strength of our execution capabilities and the talent of our people whose resilience and adaptability will underpin our future opportunities.
'The business gained momentum as the out-of-home channel recovered and growth in at-home continued. In addition, we have delivered growth in the Established and Developing segments alongside the consistent strong performance in the Emerging segment.'
He added that the company is seeing excellent performance from its areas of strategic focus - in particular Low- and no-sugar sparkling, Adult sparkling and Energy.
He said: 'We have strengthened our Coffee strategy with Caffè Vergnano, which will add a premium offering alongside the broad appeal of Costa Coffee. We have made progress on our World Without Waste agenda with new launches of 100% recycled PET packaged beverages.
'We are encouraged by the strength of the performance, and while conscious of the risks as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact our markets, we continue to expect a strong recovery in FX-neutral revenues and now believe that we can achieve a 20-30bps EBIT margin expansion this year.'