Selling sodas of Coca-Cola drops for the first time in 15 years

Coca-Cola, the world's largest beverage maker, announced yesterday that its worldwide sales of soft drinks fell for the first time in 15 years in volume. The fall in the first quarter was offset by more vigorous sales of some of its carbonated drinks, including juices and bottled water. With that, the overall volume of drinks sold rose 2%.
But the decline is significant for Coca-Cola, which saw sales of its carbonated retreat for the last time in 1999, according to the group.
Gary Fayard, Chief Financial Officer is leaving the company, attributed part of the decline of carbonated drinks to the fact Easter fell this year in the second quarter rather than the first.
"It's not something that concerns us, as it might seem at first sight," he said in a telephone interview. Fayard also cited a double-digit fall in sales of carbonated soft drinks in the United Kingdom, where the company maintained their prices, despite switching to smaller bottles. For the whole year, Fayard believes that the sales volume of soft drinks in the world will be positive.
Quarterly retreat in the segment occurs at a time when Coca-Cola finds himself increasingly dependent on non-gaseous beverages to increase its sales, since soft drinks are being pushed in both the domestic and international market.
In developed countries like the United States, these drinks have been criticized for years for his contribution to the increase in weight of the population. And the target is not just the sugar. More recently, executives attributed the fall in sales of diet sodas to concerns with artificial sweeteners.
In the first quarter, the volume of cokes sold fell 1 percent in North America and 5% in Europe. There was also falling in Mexico, after the country instituted a tax on sugary drinks, although the company has not specified the gravity of this fall.
For now, the carbonated beverages account for 75% of the volume of cases sold by the company outside the United States. In total, the international markets account for 81% of the volume marketed.
The Chief Executive of Coca-Cola, Muhtar Kent, said in a conference call with reporters that the company will seek "a balanced growth between the non-carbonated and carbonated", and will turn to different regions of the world.
Coca-Cola is not alone in struggling to increase sales of soft drinks. PepsiCo, which publishes its quarterly results tomorrow, has been registering even greater falls, despite the strengthening of marketing, that is including the sponsorship of the Super Bowl, the American football championship game.
Next year, Coca-Cola plans to increase its marketing budget by $ 400 million, "for close to $ 4 billion," said Kent. The company also launched, in Argentina, a version of Coca Cola sweetened with a blend of stevia and sugar, she plans to launch in other markets at some point.
For the quarter ended March 28, the unfavorable exchange rate contributed to a fall of 8% in net income, to $ 1.62 billion. Revenue fell 4 percent in the period, compared with the previous year, to $ 10,58 billion, but was above the forecasts of Wall Street, which pointed to $ 10.5 billion.
Companies such as Coca-Cola, which have a large proportion of its business outside the United States, suffering a blow to the recipe when the dollar is more valued, since the foreign currencies converted result in fewer dollars.