NIGERIA – Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, the parent company of the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) has reported 0.5% growth in revenue boosted by 4.6% rise in volume from both the developing and emerging markets.

The first half of 2018 was characterized by strong performance in the second quarter helped by new product launches, good weather and better sales as a result of FIFA World Cup.

“The evolution of our portfolio is gathering pace and gaining traction with customers across our markets.

We have delivered a strong set of results as product launches and tailored commercial activation enabled us to capitalize on favourable market conditions and the FIFA World Cup,” said Zoran Bogdanovic, the Chief Executive Officer of Coca-Cola HBC.

HBC which operates in 28 countries in Europe and Nigeria said growth was slowed down by currency depreciation losing US$26.62 million in emerging markets that is in Nigeria, Russia and Switzerland.

Total net profit for the half year grew 13.2% to US$251.14 million, posting double-digit growth in Energy drinks.

Operating profit margin was 9.6%, an increase of 60 basis points, however profit margins were affected somewhat by increased marketing efforts to launch new products, as well as World Cup activations.

Rising volumes and looking forward

Availability of popular PET packages, strong volume growth from Coke Zero and affordable brand Limca were all contributing factors to stable sparkling volumes though water volume fell by low single digits especially in the first quarter of the year.

Nigeria recorded 0.7% decline in volume as strong growth in the second quarter was weighed down by decline in the first quarter.

“Revenue growth was excellent driven by both volume and price/mix improvements across all three of our geographic segments.

Margins continue to improve as we keep our focus on driving top-line growth and cost control,” he added.

The company said it expects to make good progress against the 2020 targets and expect to deliver another year of revenue growth and improvement in margins for the year.