(Reuters) – Coca-Cola HBC maintained its annual profit and sales forecasts on Tuesday despite reporting higher quarterly revenue on strong demand for its energy and coffee drinks, as the bottler faces foreign exchange headwinds.
The company expects an annual impact of 50 million euros -60 million euros ($52.99 million-$63.59 million) from translational foreign exchange on group comparable operating profit.
HBC, which lifted its annual revenue forecast in August benefiting from price increases, said sparkling, energy and coffee drinks were facing less pressure from private label competition than other non-alcoholic ready-to-drink categories.
The bottler operates in Europe, parts of Africa and Ukraine.
Demand for packaged beverage and food has stayed resilient, even though companies have hiked prices to pass on elevated energy and input costs to consumers.
However, HBC’s organic net revenue growth per case in the third quarter slowed to 12.9% from the 19% seen in the first half amid lower levels of cost inflation.
The Switzerland-based company, in which U.S. beverage giant Coca-Cola owns more than 20%, witnessed a 3.8% rise in reported revenue for the three months ended Sept. 29.
Last week, Coca-Cola raised its annual sales and profit forecasts for a second time this year, riding on resilient demand from consumers for its sodas, juices and energy drinks as well as higher prices.
($1 = 0.9436 euros)
(Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
