Many of the biggest food and beverage manufacturers in the world are nervously eyeing weight-loss drugs, wondering what the trend will mean for their bottom line.
But Coca-Cola, the third-largest soft beverage producer in the world, isn’t worried, according to its CEO.
That’s because for years the company has been investing in diet and zero-sugar alternatives to its most popular products, like the classic Coca-Cola drink as well as Sprite and Fanta.
Having increased its full-year outlook during its Q3 earnings call this week, and watched its share price jump following the news, Coca-Cola is entering the final quarter of the year on a high.
Chairman and CEO James Quincey said the company is currently seeing minimal impact from drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.
“As we stand here today there’s very little data on what’s actually happening other than some anecdotal stuff,” Quincey told CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, adding that even projections don’t envision a “fundamental change” to the beverage industry.
“What’s important and distinctive about the Coca-Cola company from the beverage industry in general [is that] we in particular have been on a journey for those people who want to consume less calories, to provide zero-calorie drinks, to have innovation, to take down the calories in other drinks, and to have smaller package sizes,” Quincey continued.
Indeed, 28% of the company’s global portfolio is now in low- or no-sugar products, while approximately 66% of its sparkling portfolio now comes in packages containing 100 calories or less.
The company also navigated a potential issue after a leaked World Health Organization memo revealed aspartame, a sweetener used in common drinks and foods such as Diet Coke, would be labeled a possible carcinogen by the organization’s cancer research arm.
However, a second report released a month later from the WHO confirmed that the ingredient found in the drink is safe at “real-world exposure levels.”
According to the findings—which were conducted by 13 members and 13 experts from 15 countries—the average 154-pound person would need to consume more than nine to 14 cans of diet beverages every day over the course of their life to raise safety concerns.
“We think an environment where people are looking to consume less calories…absolutely, we have the portfolio that is fit for that,” Quincey continued.
“In the end, if you want to consume less calories you can eat less food, but from a hydration point of view, you’re going to have all the liquid, or largely have all the liquid, so we can provide the low-calorie options for those people.”
It’s an opinion echoed by PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta, who told investors earlier this month that the impact of the drugs on sales of its soft drinks was currently “negligible.”
A junk food change forever?
Other brands have had to start changing their plans because of the emergence of weight-loss drugs, with approximately 1.7% of people in the U.S. who visited the doctor in 2023 being prescribed Ozempic, Wegovy, or similar options, according to CNN.
That is almost triple the percentage seen just two years ago, with the proportion of people on the drug likely higher given the number of existing patients.
The increasing popularity of such drugs led to the share price of Ozempic-maker Novo Nordisk ballooning—surging nearly 50% this year to leapfrog Bernard Arnault’s LVMH and making it Europe’s most valuable company.
So it’s perhaps no wonder that food producers are sitting up and taking note. KitKat and Smarties maker Nestlé, for example, has begun working on a range of “companion products” for weight-loss drugs, CEO Mark Schneider said last week.
The Swiss food giant said it had seen no changes to consumer trends thus far, but is bracing for that impact, explaining: “When you eat less, you have certain needs of vitamins, minerals, and supplements. You want to be sure that the weight loss gets supported. You want to be sure that you limit the loss of lean muscle mass.”
Not all bosses in the food and drink sector have been able to strike such an optimistic note. At the start of the month John Furner, president and CEO of Walmart’s U.S. operations, told Bloomberg the business is seeing “a slight pullback in overall basket.”
However, while Furner said Walmart was seeing tentative signs of the drugs feeding into consumer preferences, he stressed that it was too early to draw definitive results from the company’s analysis.
