Coffee and energy boom for Coca-Cola Hellenic

The company sees particular strength for energy in emerging markets - led by the strength of Predator in Africa.

Releasing its FY2024 results last week, the Coca-Cola bottler - whose markets range from Ireland and Switzerland in Europe to Nigeria and Egypt in Africa - enjoyed a strong year with 13.8% increase in organic revenues and volume growth in each of its segments.

Energy embraces global growth momentum

Energy volumes grew 30% for CCHBC, riding on the wave of global growth for the category (2024 was the ninth year of consecutive double-digit growth in energy for CCHBC).

CCHBC sees energy growth across all markets: but the most potential is in markets where per capita consumption remains low.

In developed markets, the energy category is evolving to more premium, lifestyle brands.

Growth remains healthy in established markets (up single-digits for CCHBC over 2024), despite moves across Europe to regulate sales away from younger consumers (most recently in Poland and Romania).

But in emerging markets, it is affordable offers such as Predator and Fury that are ‘unlocking market potential’ with double-digit growth in the market, observes CCHBC.

Meanwhile, Monster Energy Green Zero was launched in 16 markets, with ‘encouraging signs’ from the first year of launch.

The strength of the portfolio - according to Zoran Bogdanovic, CEO at CCHBC - comes from the power of its brands.

“The most sizable is Monster, of course, as a mainstream or high-end mainstream brand,” he said. “But we also have a very good performance from Burn in a number of markets, mostly in Eastern Europe. Then this more affordable proposition that we have primarily in Africa [Predator], which is performing extremely well.”

The company also finds that its strategy of introducing dedicated coolers is also an ‘important driver of growth’; as is a focus of innovation around zero-sugar versions.

And the company is also looking at who its consumers are: a target audience which is evolving beyond the stereotypical consumer.

“Consumer segments are increasing and spreading more and more over the years,” said Bogdanovic. “It is not only teenagers as maybe used to be in the past, but there is a growing number of consumer segments that are tapping into this category, looking for this energy proposition. So many factors that we embed in our plans, and we take them very seriously, and we execute with discipline consistently.”

Coffee growth focused on out-of-home

Coffee volumes rose 23% in FY2024. Growth was seen in all segments, but particularly in the out-of-home channel, where CCHBC grew share of revenue (it added another 4,300 retail outlets in the year).

While coffee is relatively new category for the company - spurred on by Coca-Cola’s acquisition of Costa Coffee in 2019 - the bottler sees ‘great long term potential’ in this channel and is continuing to re-focus its efforts there.

“We really love the [coffee] category and opportunity for our mid-term and long-term growth trajectory,” said Bogdanovic in the company’s FY2024 earnings call last week.

“As we go along, we collect more learnings and knowledge of the business and of the category. And also, we want to build the business in the parts of the market, where we also known that economic viability is better and stronger. This is driving our plans to focus more on the out-of-home part of the market.

“Focus on out-of-home presents a stronger fundamentals of creating our footprint in that category, and it goes very well with our overall out-of-home focus that we have for our total business.”

However, CCHBC warns that the commodity costs of coffee could hold growth back from its full potential, echoing the outlook from Nestlé last week.