By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) stock was up 2.5% in Wednesday’s premarket trading as the company raised its annual sales forecast after second-quarter volume numbers surpassed those of April-June 2020.
As the pandemic waned in most regions, people stepped out and away-from-home consumption rose. Both aerated and non-aerated drinks benefited.
The company said overall, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar grew 15% year-to-date.
Coca-Cola grew 12%, putting volumes ahead of their 2019 level. Sparkling soft drinks grew 14%.
Much bigger growth was seen in hydration and sports drinks, nutrition, juice, dairy and plant-based beverages, reflecting the people’s focus on health in the aftermath of the pandemic. They all grew by between 20% and 35%.
The varying levels of growth across beverages was also because various geographies, with their own preference for a particular drink, reopened at different intervals. So, sports drinks grew in North America and tea consumption rose in the U.S. and Japan and Brazil. Coffee grew 78% in the U.K. as Costa retail stores reopened after the lockdown.
Coca-Cola expects to deliver organic revenue growth of 12% to 14% and adjusted EPS growth of 13%-15% in the ongoing financial year.
Three months ago, it had forecast annual organic revenue to grow by a little less than 10%. Similarly, EPS was then seen rising in “high single digits to low double digits”.