Despite a challenging year for its share price, bond proxy Coca-Cola (US:KO) remains a soft drinks market leader with brand equity and a product portfolio that few competitors can hope to rival. The beverages giant raised its full-year guidance last month, after posting organic revenue growth of 11 per cent in its third quarter. Analysts at HSBC said the performance was proof that Coca-Cola is building “a faster growth machine”.
- Double-digit growth
- Ties to leading drinks brand
- Market share gains
- Attractive targets
- Russia exposure
- Consumer downtrading
In this context, it wasn’t a surprise that its strategic partners are doing well, too. Coca-Cola HBC (CCH), one of the biggest of the 200 bottling partners that produce, distribute and sell Coca-Cola products, unveiled a positive third-quarter update of its own a week later. Meanwhile, the biggest independent Coca-Cola bottling player, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (US:CCEP), revealed revenue per unit case growth of 9 per cent in its recent third-quarter update.