Chief financial officer John Murphy said Coca-Cola’s commodity costs are a mixed bag of late. “We are seeing some of the inflationary forces declining, including metals,” he said in an interview. “Also lumber, copper, steel. In some areas that are important for our business, including sweeteners and juices, there are some meaningful increases.”
Murphy said the company has hedging strategies in place, but “those hedges come off the back of even more favourable hedges in 2022. We are continuing to make sure that we have certainty of supply all around the world.” In North America, the average price across a mix of products grew by 11 per cent even as concentrate sales rose just 1 per cent and the key gauge of unit case volume gained 3 per cent. The Atlanta-based company cited “continued investments in the marketplace” along with strength in away-from-home channels.
Coca-Cola maintained its forecast of full-year organic revenue growth in a range of 7 per cent to 8 per cent. Wall Street’s average estimate for the measure stands at 7.8 per cent.The shares rose 1.7 per cent in early New York trading. The stock was up 0.7 per cent so far in 2023 through last week’s close, trailing the 7.7 per cent gain of the S&P 500 Index. – Bloomberg