Coca-Cola HBC cuts sales in Russia 1% in 9M, suffers from devaluation, sanctions
MOSCOW. Nov 6 (Interfax) - Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, the exclusive bottler of Coca-Cola in a number of countries including Russia, reduced its sales volume on the Russian market by slightly less than 1% year-on-year in January-September 2014.
In Q3 the fall in sales was in the low single digits range after comparable growth a year earlier, the company said.
The escalation of geopolitical tensions is continuing to negatively affect the country's economy and the Russian consumer sentiment. In addition, the devaluation of the ruble and sanctions as well as accelerating food inflation have had a negative affect on the population's disposable income, the company said. As a result, the fall in Coca-Cola HBC's sales occurred in every main category, except for juices.
Sales of the Coca-Cola brand fell by 4%, sparkling beverages as a whole fell by 7%. Fanta was the only exception, it demonstrated stable growth thanks to launching new flavors. Juice sales increased by double digits, as a result, the market share of the company in this category grew.
Earlier Coca-Cola Co. reported a 3% fall in sales volume in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine in Q3.
In Russia, Coca-Cola Hellenic is represented by LLC Coca-Cola ABC Eurasia. It owns factories in the Moscow and Rostov regions and cities of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Oryol, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Volzhsky, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and Vladivostok.
The company earlier announced the closure of the Nidan factory in the Moscow region and Novosibirsk and the consolidation of its juice business at Multon facilities.
Coca-Cola HBC boosted sales in Russia 5% last year to 388 million unit cases.
