A look at Coca-Cola

Founded in 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia, the Coca-Cola Company today sells in excess of 1.9 billion beverages (500 global brands) in more than 200 countries worldwide daily. In 2022, the company placed 7th in the rankings for the world’s best global brands by Interbrand.

Coca-Cola FAQs

How does Coca-Cola maintain its popularity globally?

Coca-Cola remains one of the most popular brands in the world, unsurprisingly if one considers the company averaged approximately US$4 billion yearly on advertising between 2017 – 2021. The success of its advertising is largely based on creating experiences and using messages that consumers can relate to and understand. Global awareness campaigns are executed through multiple different platforms. This includes television, billboards, webpages, streams and many more.

How does Coca-Cola do bottling?

Most Coca-Cola products are neither completed nor bottled by the company. Instead, Coke generates revenue by selling concentrates and syrups to bottling facilities globally and by selling finished products to retailers and other distributors.

What types of revenues does Coca-Cola generate?

As far as revenue is concerned, in early February 2023, it was reported that the soft drink maker gained nearly 1% after reporting revenue of $10.13 billion for the fourth quarter. This exceeded the $10.02 billion anticipated by Wall Street analysts, according to Refinitiv.

For the full year, net revenues are said to have grown 11% to $43.0 billion, and organic revenues (non-GAAP) grew 16%. This performance was driven by a 5% growth in concentrate sales and an 11% growth in price/mix.

What are some of Coca-Cola’s key initiatives?

There are several key initiatives that Coca-Cola seeks to implement. Water leadership is one. This includes a focus on water security through advocacy for smarter water policies, responsible water usage, and water replenishment. The company is also looking to create a world without waste.

Among the objectives of this initiative is making its packaging completely recyclable by 2025. Coca-Cola also announced its science-based target to reduce its absolute emissions by 25% by 2030 against a 2015 baseline and an ambition to be net zero carbon by 2050.

Finally, the company continues its diversity, equity, inclusion, and empowerment drive through several activities within the company and in local communities where Coke does business.

In this article, we’ll look at what’s new for Coca-Cola in 2023.

Dividend increase

On 16 February, the Coca-Cola Company announced its 61st consecutive annual dividend increase, raising the quarterly dividend by approximately 4.6 per cent from 44 cents to 46 cents per common share. The quarterly dividend is equivalent to an annual dividend of $1.84 per share, up from $1.76 per share in 2022. The first quarter dividend is payable on April 3 to shareowners of record as of March 17.

In 2022, the company returned $7.6 billion in dividends to shareowners. This took the total sum of dividends paid to shareowners since Jan. 1, 2010, to $76.8 billion.

Price hikes

Coca-Cola has reportedly announced that it will push ahead with increasing soda prices across the world in 2023 to fight high costs. Coca-Cola Chief Executive James Quincey has said the company will raise prices at a moderating pace. Coca-Cola’s average selling price already rose 11% for the full year that ended 31 December.

A move to artificial intelligence

Coca-Cola will be one of the first global consumer goods brands to partner with OpenAI and Bain & Company to use OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL-E platforms. In a February 2023 press release by Bain & Company announcing its alliance with Open AI, James Quincey, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, confirmed how the company sees opportunities to enhance marketing through this rapidly emerging technology, along with exploring ways to improve business operations and capabilities.

Expansion into ready-to-drink alcohol

Exploring the potential for competing in this space, Coca-Cola and Jack Daniels owner Brown Forman announced an agreement in June 2022 to distribute the Jack & Coke canned cocktail. Anticipated US debut of this new product is in March 2023, with an early launch in Mexico at the end of last year exceeded expectations. Coke has also teamed up with beer and wine maker Constellation Brands, and Molson Coors, a producer of some of the world’s most iconic beer brands and other beverages, further cementing its expansion into this space.

Sustainability through refillable

Coca-Cola remains the world’s top polluter by a significant margin over the last 5 years. A Break Free from Plastic 2022 brand audit report found more than 31,000 Coca-Cola branded products, representing a 63% increase from 2021, and more than triple what was found in 2018.

One of the ways that the company is reportedly seeking to cut plastic waste is through refillable bottles. In October 2022, Coca-Cola announced its aim to have at least 25% of all beverages globally across its portfolio of brands sold in refillable/reusable containers, such as glass or plastic bottles, or in refillable containers through a traditional fountain or Coca-Cola Freestyle dispensers by 2030.

The global consumer brand also intends on making 100% of its packaging recyclable globally by 2025; using at least 50% recycled material in its packaging by 2030; and collecting and recycling a bottle or can for each one its sells by 2030.

2030 Water Security Strategy

In 2021, Coca-Cola unveiled its plans to focus on regenerative water use in bottling operations, boost watershed health, and enhance community water resilience. The 2023 strategy will focus on Coke maintaining leading standards for water risk management, continuous water use efficiency improvement and wastewater treatment.

The goals and targets included in the framework for leadership locations include achieving 100% regenerative water use, i.e., reduce, reuse, recycle and replenish the water they use locally; to drive accelerated water efficiency improvement in water-stressed locations versus 2015, which the company will validate through context-based targets with its bottlers; and to implement watershed health plans in 100% of its priority watersheds.

Disclaimer:

This information is not considered investment advice or an investment recommendation, but instead a marketing communication. IronFX is not responsible for any data or information provided by third parties referenced or hyperlinked, in this communication.