Coca-Cola is raising its full-year sales guidance after a stronger-than-expected second quarter boosted by continued price increases.
The Atlanta beverage giant said Tuesday it now expects organic sales to grow between 9% and 10% this year, up from 8% to 9% previously. One standout was Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, which saw a 20% jump in global volume sales.
Revenue rose 3% to $12.4 billion for the April-June period. That was higher than Wall Street anticipated. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting revenue of $11.8 billion.
Coke, which hiked prices 13% in the first quarter, raised them 9% in the April-June period. The company said that was partly due to hyperinflation in some markets, including Argentina and Nigeria. Coke has raised prices every quarter since the end of 2020.
Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO James Quincey defended the price hikes. In North America, where Coke's prices rose 11%, about half of the increase was due to sales of more expensive beverages like Topo Chico mineral water and Fairlife milk, Quincey said. The other half was due to straight price hikes.
“We still have input costs that are going up, typically the agricultural ones rather than the metal or commodity-based ones, but in the end, our strategy remains," Quincey said. "Yes, there’ll be cost inflation. Yes, we’ll look to put it through.”
But price increases appear to be hurting demand at home, where North American unit case volume sales fell 1%. Coke saw lower North American demand for water, sports drinks, sparkling sodas, coffee, tea and its trademark Coca-Cola beverages.
Quincey said the company saw some softness in away-from-home demand at places like restaurants and movie theaters. That's been a trend since the second half of last year, he said.
“Really, it’s been kind of a slow softening rather than anything major and abrupt," he said.
Consumer demand overall has been resilient, the CEO added, but “there's a piece of the lower-income consumers who are either going out slightly less or when they do go out, they're looking for greater value through combo meals.”
Quincey said Coke is working with restaurant partners to ensure beverages are included in their combos. For example, McDonald's launched a $5 meal deal in late June that includes a small Coke beverage or other drink.
In the Asia Pacific region, where Coke lowered prices 3%, unit case volume sales rose 3%. Unit case volumes were up 5% in Latin America and flat in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Coca-Cola's net income fell 5% to $2.4 billion, or 56 cents per share. Adjusted for one-time items, including currency fluctuations, Coke earned 84 cents per share. That also beat Wall Street’s forecast of 81 cents.
Shares of The Coca-Cola Co. rose less than 1% in morning trading.
Coke's results were a contrast with rival PepsiCo, which tightened its full-year organic revenue guidance earlier this month after posting weaker-than-expected revenue in the second quarter. But unlike Coke, PepsiCo sells snack foods like Frito-Lay chips. Demand for those products has begun to fall after several years of price increases.
FILE - The Coca-Cola logo adorns the side of a delivery truck May 15, 2024, in southeast Denver. Coca-Cola reports earnings on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Kamala Harris said Thursday that Israel's killing of Hamas' top leader offers "an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza," talking plainly about next steps even as the pro-Palestinian demonstrators who gathered outside her campaign event underscored the complicated politics at play.
The Democratic presidential nominee said the war “must end such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”
“It is time for the day after to begin,” she said, speaking from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee just moments after the White House released President Joe Biden's statement on the death of Yahya Sinwar. Israeli officials said Sinwar was killed in a battle with Israeli forces in Gaza.
The administration's response to the killing of a chief architect of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel was carefully choreographed, leaving room for Harris to emphasize the push to end the war as she balances her loyalty to Biden.
With the presidential race at razor-thin margins and the election just a few weeks away, the vice president is seeking to solidify support in battleground states and shore up left flank voters who want to see an immediate end to the bloody conflict, some of whom threaten not to vote for her.
The Biden administration’s support for Israel has complicated her campaign push in metro Detroit, especially in Dearborn, an area home to the nation’s largest Arab American community. The death earlier this month of a Dearborn resident killed in south Lebanon ignited more anger in the traditionally Democratic area.
Speaking Thursday in Flint, Michigan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she was hopeful for an end to the violence.
“Have the hostages returned and have a solution for long-term peace in the region. That’s everything that I think is so important. And, you know, any chance that we can do that, I think would be welcomed by so many people,” she said.
At Harris' next stop in Wisconsin, at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, her remarks focused on Trump and his falsehoods around the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump is “increasingly unstable and unhinged, and will stop at nothing to claim unchecked power for himself," she said.
William Schauberger, a 24-year-old political science major, said ahead of Harris’ rally that he wasn’t optimistic about prospects for resolving the conflict in the Middle East regardless of the election results. He deemed the loss of life in Gaza “straight up genocide” and predicted “neither party will do anything about it.”
Harris has not proposed any policy shifts on Israel, and her remarks largely echoed Biden's statement. But she has, of late, faced increasing pressure to articulate how she would govern differently from Biden.
While Biden’s favorability ratings remain underwater, some of the biggest pieces of his legislative agenda, from infrastructure to lowering the costs of some prescription drugs, are popular, and signaling any daylight with the president on foreign policy at a time of global crises could be seen as reckless.
Biden's written statement on Sinwar's death — released as he was traveling to Germany for a visit with Chancellor Olaf Scholz — focused on how U.S. intelligence helped the Israelis pursue Hamas leadership and noted that Israel had every right to “eliminate the leadership and military structure of Hamas.”
“Today proves once again that no terrorists anywhere in the world can escape justice, no matter how long it takes,” Biden said.
He said he would speak with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “congratulate them, to discuss the pathway for bringing the hostages home to their families and for ending this war once and for all, which has caused so much devastation to innocent people.”
Karnowski reported from La Crosse, Wisconsin, and Long from Washington. Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Milwaukee and Todd Richmond in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Joey Cappelletti in Flint, Michigan, contributed to this report.
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to speak at a campaign rally at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse, in La Crosse, Wis., Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to speak at a campaign rally at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse, in La Crosse, Wis., Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to speak at a campaign rally at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse, in La Crosse, Wis., Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse, in La Crosse, Wis., Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about the killing of Hamas' top leader Yahya Sinwar in a battle with Israeli forces in Gaza, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, following a campaign rally at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about the killing of Hamas' top leader Yahya Sinwar in a battle with Israeli forces in Gaza, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, following a campaign rally at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about the killing of Hamas' top leader Yahya Sinwar in a battle with Israeli forces in Gaza, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, following a campaign rally at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
