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WMA 2024-Coca Cola

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WMAC 2023-Coca-Cola

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F500-2023-100-Coca-Cola

The Coca-Cola Company owns a roster of over 200 brands that includes its eponymous soft drink; Powerade; Fairlife; and Bodyarmor, a recent acquisition. 
<ul> 
 	<li>In 2022 the Coca-Cola Company had strong topline performance with $43 billion in revenues, an 11% increase compared to the prior year, but struggled to grow its profits; its $9.5 billion total represented a 2% decline. The company dropped seven spots on the Fortune 500.</li> 
 	<li>Coca-Cola expanded into the alcoholic beverage market in the U.S. with the launch of a canned Jack Daniels bourbon and Coke drink after a successful 2022 pilot in Mexico.</li> 
 	<li>In March 2023 Coca-Cola inked a deal for an undisclosed sum with OpenAI for use of its ChatGPT and DALL-E chatbots. Details are still vague, but the company has already announced an advertising campaign in which it invites people “to generate original artwork with iconic creative assets from the Coca-Cola archives.”</li> 
</ul>

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WMAC-2022-26-Coca-Cola

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F500-2022-093-Coca-Cola

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WMAC 2021-22-Coca-Cola

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<span data-sheets-value="{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;The pandemic battered Coca-Cola’s business, with revenue falling 11.4% to $33 billion in 2020. Consumer cravings for soft drinks and snacks at home failed to match the corresponding cratering of demand for Coke products in restaurants, movie theaters, and other public destinations, where the company traditionally makes about half its sales. Amid these societal changes, the Atlanta-based beverage company made some changes of its own; Coca-Cola in August 2020 announced plans to restructure its workforce to focus on its fastest-growing products (Tab and Odwalla drinks got the ax). That plan meant cutting more than 2,000 jobs through layoffs and buyouts out of an employee base of just over 80,000.&quot;}" data-sheets-userformat="{&quot;2&quot;:12673,&quot;3&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:0},&quot;10&quot;:2,&quot;11&quot;:4,&quot;15&quot;:&quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;16&quot;:11}">The pandemic battered Coca-Cola’s business, with revenue falling 11.4% to $33 billion in 2020. Consumer cravings for soft drinks and snacks at home failed to match the corresponding cratering of demand for Coke products in restaurants, movie theaters, and other public destinations, where the company traditionally makes about half its sales. Amid these societal changes, the Atlanta-based beverage company made some changes of its own; Coca-Cola in August 2020 announced plans to restructure its workforce to focus on its fastest-growing products (Tab and Odwalla drinks got the ax). That plan meant cutting more than 2,000 jobs through layoffs and buyouts out of an employee base of just over 80,000.

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F500-2021-93-Coca-Cola

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G500-2020-335-Coca-Cola

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F500-2020-088-Coca-Cola

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Wal-Mart stayed on top as its sales crept closer to half-a-trillion dollars. Apple moved into the top five. And UnitedHealth Group continued its steady climb. 

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Coca-Cola, one of the world’s largest beverage companies, sells products that includes soft drinks, coffee, tea, sports drinks, juices, and water. The Coca-Cola system includes more than 200 independent bottlers worldwide. Coca-Cola dates to 1886, when the Atlanta pharmacist who formulated the syrup poured the first glass, which was sold for five cents.

Q2 2026

Q1 2026

Q4 2025

Q2 2025

Q1 2025

Q4 2024

Coca-Cola (KO): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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Coca-Cola

coca-cola

At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to The Coca-Cola Company's fourth quarter 2025 earnings results conference call. Today's call is being recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, press star one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to remind everyone that the purpose of this conference is to talk with investors, and therefore, questions from the media will not be addressed. Media participants should contact Coca-Cola's media relations department if they have any questions. I would now like to introduce Ms. Robin Halpern, Vice President and Head of Investor Relations. Ms. Halpern, you may now begin.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. I'm here with James Quincey, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Henrique Braun, our CEO-elect and Chief Operating Officer, and John Murphy, our President and Chief Financial Officer. We've posted schedules under financial information in the investors section of our company website. These reconcile certain non-GAAP financial measures that may be referred to this morning to results as reported under generally accepted accounting principles. You can also find schedules in the same section of our website that provide an analysis of our gross and operating margins. This call may contain forward-looking statements, including statements concerning long-term earnings objectives, which should be considered in conjunction with cautionary statements contained in our earnings release and in the company's periodic SEC reports. Following prepared remarks, we will take your questions. Please limit yourself to one question. Reenter the queue to ask follow-ups.

Thanks, Robin, and good morning, everyone. Before I get started, I'd like to thank all of you for your support and collaboration over the years, from the analysts on the call, to the investors who are listening, to the many employees and other stakeholders who are joining us as well. Today will be my last earnings call. It's been a tremendous honor to be the CEO of this remarkable company. Coca-Cola gave me the opportunity to serve consumers, customers, and communities around the world and work alongside incredibly talented and dedicated colleagues and friends. Our company has achieved a lot over the last decade. Looking back to CAGNY 2017, we set four strategic priorities: accelerating our consumer-centric brand portfolio, strengthening our system, digitizing the enterprise, and unlocking the power of our people, and I think we've done a good job meeting those priorities.

We've added 12 billion-dollar brands to our total beverage portfolio, bringing our total to 32 billion-dollar brands. 75% of our billion-dollar brands are outside our sparkling soft drinks. And while we've expanded our portfolio to offer consumers more choice, we've also reinvigorated growth to our legacy sparkling soft drink brands. Trademark Coca-Cola retail sales grew by over $60 billion, and the brand is the highest valued food and beverage brand in the world, according to Kantar, with a long runway ahead. Alignment with our bottling partners is better than ever, and we have a clear line of sight into completing our refranchising strategy. This work created a virtuous circle for our system, with higher returns, additional investment, and further value creation. We've also taken foundational steps to digitize our system. We've made good progress connecting with consumers and customers on a more granular and personalized level.

Lastly, we've built a culture that prioritizes our willingness to take risks, learn through iteration, push each other, and scale successes. Our people and our growth mindset remain two of our biggest advantages. As a result of delivering on these four strategic priorities, we've had a 7% average organic revenue growth since 2017, above our long-term growth algorithm. After years of being stuck at around $2 comparable earnings per share, we inflected our earnings, overcame ongoing currency headwinds, and have achieved a $3 comparable earnings per share in 2025. We also created more than $150 billion of market value for our shareowners and outperformed the consumer staples industry. Our foundation today is as strong as it's ever been. No matter how you slice it, by category, by consumer, by channel, we have immense growth opportunities ahead of us.

Henrique will bring new energy to usher in our next chapter of growth, and he's particularly passionate about our brands, franchise operating model, digital engagement, and our people. We both started at the Coca-Cola Company in the same year, over 30 years ago, and he's been an invaluable partner to me over the past decade. He's worked across many functions and has created value for our system on every continent where we do business. The best days for our system continue to be ahead of us, and I'm confident we'll capture these opportunities under Henrique's leadership. So without further ado, I'll pass the call off to Henrique Braun, the next Chief Executive Officer of the Coca-Cola Company.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you, James. I'd like to take a moment to thank you for your leadership during your tenure as CEO and for your incredible contribution to our system. You leave a legacy of returning our business to growth. It's a privilege to be the next Chief Executive Officer, and I look forward to partnering with you in your ongoing role as the Chairman. Now, I would like to discuss our 2025 performance. Despite a complex external environment in 2025, we delivered on our initial top-line and bottom-line guidance set last February. We also continued our streak of gaining value share for the last 19 quarters.

... Organic revenue growth was in line with our long-term growth algorithm. While unit case volume was flat in 2025, we ended the year with better momentum as volume improved each month during the fourth quarter. If you take a step back, we have a long track record of navigating complex external dynamics to hold or grow volume each year. Over the past 50 years, annual volume declined only once, and that was during the pandemic. Rounding out the P&L, ongoing efficiency and effectiveness initiatives drove strong comparable operating margin expansion in 2025, which contributed to 4% comparable earnings per share growth, despite 5 points of currency headwinds and a 2-point increase in our comparable effective tax rate. During the fourth quarter, we grew volume despite cycling a tougher comparison versus the prior year.

We continued to invest to build our system for the year ahead, as well as for the long term. Starting with North America, we delivered strong results despite continued macroeconomic pressure on lower-income consumers. We gained both volume and value share and grew volume, revenue, and comparable operating income. We had broad-based strength across our total beverage portfolio as Trademark Coca-Cola, Sprite Zero, Fresca, Dasani, fairlife, BODYARMOR trademark, and Powerade, each grew volume. Innovation contributed to our growth as Sprite Chill and Coca-Cola Holiday Creamy Vanilla had strong performance. Across our portfolio, our system focused on accelerating cold drink equipment placement, expanding availability of value offerings, and winning share of visible inventory. In Latin America, we are lifting and shifting, learning from across our markets and leveraging our systems capability to navigate the challenging external environment.

During the fourth quarter, we managed to gain value share and grow volume, revenue, and comparable currency neutral operating income. Both Coca-Cola Zero Sugar and Sprite Zero Sugar had strong performance. Santa Clara, our value-added dairy brand in Mexico, became another addition to our stable of billion-dollar brands. To drive consumer demand, we tapped into key passion points by linking Fanta with Halloween. We also continue to focus on refillable packaging, value offerings, and attractive absolute price points across our portfolio. EMEA, we gained value share and grew volume and revenue. In Europe, volume declined as the quarter started slowly before recovering. To drive transactions, we activated several campaigns focused on the holiday and the upcoming Winter Olympics. In the UK, we leveraged our English Premier League partnership to engage consumers with customized product offerings.

In Italy, to kick off the Winter Olympics torch relay, we launched a music festival in Rome, and our Coca-Cola truck followed the Olympic flame across key towns and cities ahead of the game. In Euro and the Middle East and in Africa, we grew volume in both operating units. We tapped into key innovations grounded in local consumers' insights, like Sprite Lemon Mint in the Middle East, and had impactful marketing campaigns like Schweppes, Born Social 2.0, and Share a Coke in Nigeria. Our efforts to highlight the localness of our system and sharpen our revenue growth management capabilities led to volume growth in both operating units in 2025. Lastly, in Asia Pacific, we gained value share and had flat volume. However, revenue and profit declined during the quarter.

Volume growth in Japan was offset by declines elsewhere, driven primarily by softer consumer spending, weaker industry performance, and cycling strong growth in the prior year. We are continuing to invest in long-term growth opportunities across Asia Pacific, and we are implementing granular channel execution plans and tailoring our brand price back architecture with a focus on attractive absolute price points and value offerings. In summary, we are responding to differing dynamics across our markets by adapting faster, leveraging our portfolio power, and investing for growth. As I prepare to step into the CEO role and think about what's next, there will be a balance between continuing what's working and evolving where we can to become more effective and efficient. While we are proud of what we have accomplished, future success is never guaranteed. We must remain discontented.

Every day, our system needs to focus on being a little bit better and sharper everywhere to drive transformational impact. We have enduring strength, which includes an incredible foundation of 32 billion-dollar brands and unmatched system reach. Our mission is both to increase this number of billion-dollar brands and to turn today's billion-dollar brands into tomorrow's multi-billion-dollar brands. To drive further quality leadership, I'm excited about three key areas. First, we'll aim to step change recruitment, especially with young adult consumers, by better integrating our marketing campaigns with commercial execution at the point of sale. We already have a good starting point. In the U.S., for example, we have 10 of the top 20 beverage brands for young adult drinkers, including Coca-Cola, which is the number one beverage brand. Second, we need to get closer to the consumer and improve our speed to market.

While we have made some progress with our overall success rates over the past several years, our innovation today is not where it needs to be. We are striving to better anticipate the next growth opportunity in beverages and shape what comes next, driven by our deep consumer insights. Third, I am energized about steering our future ad system. We must be intentional about putting digital at the core of every connection with consumers, customers, and across the system. The better-than-ever alignment that we have today with our bottling partners is simply the starting point. Putting it all together, we look to continue expanding our horizons and shape our future. We have a durable strategy, and our runway is long. I'm confident we will deliver on our 2026 guidance and capture the best opportunities available.

I look forward to sharing more details on how we are thinking about evolving our culture and our enterprise to fuel a new decade of growth next week at CAGNY. With that, I will turn the call over to John to discuss 2025 performance and guidance for 2026.

Thank you, Henrique, and good morning, everyone. First, I'd like to recognize James and congratulate him for his tremendous career and amazing leadership as our CEO. It's been an absolute honor working alongside you. I'm also confident in the company's future as Henrique steps into the CEO role. Looking back at 2025, we remained agile and focused on improving execution of our strategy to deliver on our guidance. During the fourth quarter, we grew organic revenues 5%. Unit case growth was 1%. Concentrate sales grew three points ahead of unit cases, driven primarily by the timing of concentrate shipments and an extra day in the quarter.

Our price mix growth of 1% was primarily driven by approximately 4 points of pricing actions, offset by 3 points of unfavorable mix, which was driven by an unusual combination of business mix, category mix, and timing of a number of items. Comparable gross margin and comparable operating margin both increased approximately 50 basis points. Both were driven by underlying expansion, partially offset by currency headwinds. Putting it all together, fourth quarter comparable EPS of $0.58 was up 6% year-over-year, despite 5% currency headwinds and an increase in our comparable effective tax rate. Free cash flow, excluding the fairlife contingent consideration payment, was $11.4 billion in 2025, which is an increase of approximately $600 million versus the prior year's free cash flow, excluding the IRS tax deposit.

Growth was driven by underlying business performance and lower tax payments versus the prior year. Adjusted free cash flow conversion in 2025 was 93%, in line with our long-term targeted range for the third consecutive year. Our balance sheet remains strong, with our net debt leverage of 1.6 times EBITDA, which is below our targeted range of 2-2.5 times. We'll continue to judiciously manage our balance sheet as we await a court decision related to our ongoing dispute with the IRS. Enabled by our all-weather strategy, we have demonstrated our ability to navigate local market dynamics to deliver on our global objectives. Our 2026 guidance builds on the results we've achieved over the past several years. We expect organic revenue growth of 4%-5%, which is in line with our long-term growth algorithm.

We also expect growth in comparable currency-neutral earnings per share, excluding acquisitions and divestitures, of 5%-6%. We continue to focus on investing behind our brands to drive balanced top-line growth, with volume as a key priority. Notwithstanding volatility in certain commodities and evolving global trade dynamics, we expect the overall impact on our cost basket to be manageable. Divestitures are expected to be an approximate 4-point headwind to comparable net revenues and an approximate 1-point headwind to comparable earnings per share. This assumes the pending sale of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa closes subject to regulatory approvals during the second half of 2026... and includes the impact of divesting Chi, which was our juice and value-added dairy finished product operations in Nigeria.

Based on current rates and our hedged positions, we anticipate an approximate 1-point currency tailwind to comparable net revenues and an approximate 3-point currency tailwind to comparable earnings per share for full year 2026. Our underlying effective tax rate for 2026 is expected to be 20.9%. All in, we expect comparable earnings per share growth of 7%-8% versus $3 in 2025. We also expect to generate approximately $12.2 billion of free cash flow in 2026, through approximately $14.4 billion in cash from operations, less approximately $2.2 billion in capital investments. Driven by our free cash flow generation, we have an unwavering commitment to reinvest in our business and grow our dividend.

Approximately 25% of our expected 2026 capital investment relates to company-owned bottlers, and the remaining capital investment is primarily growth-oriented, which includes building capacity for our concentrate and finished goods businesses. For the past 63 years, we've grown our dividend. In 2025, dividends paid as a percentage of adjusted free cash flow was 73%, which is relatively in line with our long-term payout ratio of 75%. With respect to acquisitions and share repurchases, we'll stay both flexible and opportunistic. On acquisitions, while our track record has not been perfect, we have created a lot of value in aggregate. Just over half of our portfolio of 32 billion-dollar brands was created inorganically. Most of these were both on acquisitions that we later scaled ourselves.

On share repurchases, we continue to repurchase shares to offset any dilution from the exercise of stock options by employees in the given year. Putting it all together, our capital allocation policy prioritizes both discipline and agility to drive the long-term health of our business and create value for our stakeholders. Finally, there are some considerations to keep in mind for 2026. First, due to a calendar shift in the first quarter, while we'll have 6 additional days, we expect approximately half of the benefit to be offset by concentrate shipment, cycling, and timing. Also, the fourth quarter will have 6 fewer days. Additionally, we will have lost equity income due to divesting our interest in Coca-Cola Consolidated in November 2025.

Lastly, assuming the pending sale of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa closes during the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals, we expect the impact from acquisitions and divestitures to be back half weighted. To sum it all up, we're focused on continuing what's working and transforming where needed to deliver on our 2026 guidance and create enduring value for our shareowners. We believe we're well positioned to drive top-line growth, margin expansion, cash generation, and returns over the long term. Next week at CAGNY, I'll elaborate further on how we will do this. And with that, operator, we are ready to take questions.

Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you will need to press star one on your telephone. To withdraw your question, press star one again. In the interest of time, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question. If you have any additional questions, you may rejoin the queue. Our first question comes from Dara Mohsenian with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning. First, best wishes, James, after a remarkable run under your stewardship and congratulations to Henrique. I just wanted to get into the nitty-gritty of the 4%-5% organic sales growth outlook for 2026. Was just hoping to get some perspective on the balance between price, mix, and volume in 2026. You know, first, obviously, the Q4 price mix result was dragged down by geographic mix and timing, as you mentioned. What's a more normalized price mix run rate as you build up the geographies and look forward to 2026, particularly in a tough consumer environment and, you know, relative to what you'd view as a more underlying run rate on price mix coming out of Q4? And then just on the volume side, impressive 1% result in the quarter against a tough 2% comparison.

But you do have the Mexico drag on volume from taxes in 2026, perhaps some concentrate timing, still difficult consumer environment. So just wanted to get perspective on volume prospects also for 2026 and just again, the balance between volume and, and price mix that's implied in the organic sales growth guidance. Thanks.

... Well, thanks, Dara, and I was slightly worried that you were gonna try and cram in all the questions for the next few years in your last opportunity to ask me one. Let me unpack a little, particularly as you mentioned, 2025 price mix, and then roll into 2026. And again, I'll take this opportunity on my last call to make an exhortation to people, particularly as it relates to price mix and inventory, given our position in the slow supply chain, to always try and take a full quarter view. What do I mean by that? In the fourth quarter, pricing came in at 1%, but actually it was really four. Underlying pricing, as John mentioned, was really 4%. There was this 3% negative mix.

Partly it was BIG, partly it was some geographies and categories. You know, in previous quarters, it's been +2 or +3. If you look across the last four quarters, that mix number is even. So it's always useful to take a full quarter view on the mix components. If you take that, what you see is 4% underlying price and 1% volume. So you see the fourth quarter, in simple terms, as a 5% revenue growth quarter, which is very much what we've been delivering through 2025 and back into the previous year. So I think that's super important to bear in mind.

And then if we've talked historically, as inflation has moderated, as we have seen that some of the economies around the world stabilize, we have been expecting our go-forward guidance to see a more balanced mix of volume and price. And so I think that's what you kinda see for 2026, is a view that we still are gonna be top-line driven. We see strength in everything we're doing, and I know Henrique and John will unpack that in CAGNY.

But we are just being a little more realistic, as we always are, on where we need to improve to get that volume in 2026, and being a degree of prudence, some of the weaknesses would need to resolve themselves and bounce back, India, China, some of ASEAN, a few countries in Europe, and then we've got the kind of the Mexican tax headwind starting now. We have just been, what we believe to be realistic and prudent, but still super important, we are leaning into growth. We believe we have all the strategies and execution to drive top-line growth well into the future.

Our next question comes from Steve Powers of Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

Great, and good morning. Congrats again, both to you, James, on your past accomplishments and Henrique on the accomplishments to come. I guess following up on Dara's question related to, you know, the 4%-5% call for 2026. You know, James, a few months ago, you talked about some steady, that you framed as light drizzle in the macro environment, that seemed to be trending worse for consumers. I guess, how have you assumed those general operating conditions trend in the year ahead? And as we think about the balance of that 4%-5% growth in 2026, from a different perspective, you talked about volume versus price, I guess the contributions that you're expecting from emerging versus developed markets in the year ahead would be helpful as well. Thank you.

Sure. Yes, I think light drizzle was the December phrase, which I still think is true, relative to what people were expecting then. Look, I think this mix between volume and price also. Look, we believe we will get back to a balance. I'll call it 50/50. What is important this year is to know that the places that need to get better are the contributors of long-term volume growth. India is a long-term contributor of volume growth, so that needs to build back, and we would expect that to ramp up during the year. Similarly, China was a little weaker in the fourth quarter than it had been during the year, and we're looking to see that build back up through the year, and a couple of other ASEAN and European markets.

So the bits that will, and obviously, the Mexican tax headwind is more likely to be impactful at the beginning of the year, in the first quarter, and then, to some extent, mitigate as we execute the actions to try and offset the impacts. All of that would lead you to conclude that we need to see the actions executed and see that volume start to build back in some of the volume-driving countries through the year. So you therefore might see a little more price at the beginning of the year and a little more balance towards the end of the year, if that makes sense. But in the end, we're looking, and the guys will talk about it in CAGNY next week, to get more growth, more brands, and more markets.

Our next question comes from Lauren Lieberman with Barclays. Your line is open.

Great, thanks. Good morning, everyone. I wanted to talk a little bit about profitability. North America operating margin expansion, another strong year, and now at 30% margins for the first time in this operating unit. I think when I've asked, John, when I've asked you about it in the past, you're always like, "Oh, it's a one-off, you know, don't get too excited about profitability in North America," but it does look like there's been structural change. So, just wanted to talk about now maybe long-term view of that. Is this in a, you know, an appropriate level of margin? Is there more incremental reinvestment you need to do? Do you feel like you're kind of overearning in some way, profitability-wise, or is there more work to do and more expansion that can happen? Thanks.

... And answer it in two parts, take the opportunity to talk about it at the total company level. You know, we have, I think in the last eight years, averaged about 60 basis points a year, operating margin expansion. We have talked frequently about the fact that it's not a fluke. There's lots of levers that we have in the supply chain, marketing investment, how we run the business. And North America has been our, I guess, our star performer over the last few years in tapping into all three sources. And they expect, and we expect there are folks running North America, and we expect them to continue to sort of lead the way because there is still tremendous opportunity to, as Henrique said earlier, just get a little bit better every day.

We'll talk again next week on a sort of a deeper dive into some of these levers and how they have been and will continue to help us deliver on our long-term algorithm, which, as you know, implies modest expansion on a going-forward basis.

Our next question comes from Chris Carey with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Hi. Good morning, everyone. I wanted to bring the discussion back to some of these markets in 2025, which caused a bit more volatility for the business. Some are getting a bit better. I think India, China still has opportunities to get better. Mexico will be implementing the excise tax, so there could be some volatility around volume. I wonder if we just take a step back, can you perhaps comment on some of the markets which, you know, have been a bit more challenging or, or more volatile, perhaps than usual in 2025, and how we should be thinking about overcoming those challenges into 2026, both because the compares get easier, but also some of the actions that you'll be driving in these markets.

James, you had mentioned a few in a prior comment, but I wonder if we could just focus in on this concept and, you know, talk a bit more strategically about the sequential development and some of the actions that you're thinking through. Thank you.

Chris, it's Henrique here. I'll take this one. So first of all, I think it's important to look at the numbers on Q4 because it tells a lot about what you're mentioning in terms of how we got puts and takes all over the world in strong hold markets that continue to have the momentum. And others that we expected to do better and for different reasons, they were on ups and downs during the year. As James had mentioned, China, India's of the world and Mexico this year with a, you know, heavy that's coming with the taxes. But I'll cover how we're gonna actually leverage the whole world performance to continue to deliver towards our outlook, okay?

But the all-weather strategy has been working for us because we leverage not only the ones that have the momentum to offset these other markets. If you go specifically into the three that we mentioned in APAC, when we have China, for instance, being one big market for us, volumetrically speaking, but it has been also a market that we have seen the consumer sentiment and the spend being below pre-pandemic dates. Nevertheless, we continue to gain share in the market. We took a strategy there to build this for the long term, and we continue to have a good inroads on the quality leadership on the core, and we continued to win in that.

So it's more of a long-term market, and we expect, on our plans, to continue to drive that next year, but with some volatility in that. With China and with India, we had last year different impacts from industry impacts, dynamics, weather, and it was a market that we continue to invest also ahead of the curve, and we believe that we can get back on track in 2026. Finally, the other market, Mexico. You have to look at the context of Latin America. We have had headwinds in the past with in different markets, and the system together was able to build the right capabilities and address it through very good foundations on RGM. That's exactly what we're doing there in Mexico and leveraging the other markets that have the right momentum, to get that algorithm going.

So in a nutshell, we believe that we have plans to continue to navigate well, and the all-weather strategy should put us in a good shape to deliver against the LTGM.

Our next question comes from Filippo Falorni with Citi. Your line is open.

Hi. Good morning, everyone, and congrats from me as well to both James and Henrique, as you step in a new role. Maybe first, just a little bit expansion on the expectation for the North America business into 2026.

... especially around a few points. Obviously, you have incremental fairlife capacity coming in early in the year. So maybe give us a sense of how you're thinking that will play out throughout the year and, and the growth for the brand that you're expecting. And also, as we get into the summer, you obviously have the World Cup and a lot of activation around that event. Any expectations around potential uplift there? And then lastly, last year in Q1, you had the negative temporary issue with Hispanic consumer around the video. So anything that you can think there to potentially see some more benefit in the first part of the year in North America? Thank you.

Philip, I'll take that one as well. Look, North America 2025, remember that we started the year with the challenge that you mentioned on some fake news that impacted, you know, part of the portfolio. And then we started to go on a sequential basis, improving quarter-on-quarter. We finished, as you see the numbers down on Q4, on a positive note and with good momentum across the portfolio. We continue to grow on the core, on sparkling, especially on Coca-Cola trademark. And then we look at also fairlife continuing the momentum. We had also very encouraging news on our dual strategy on sports with Powerade and BODYARMOR, not only gaining share, but volume in the market. smartwater continues to do well as well.

So from a portfolio basis and a consumer resilience, we believe that we have the good momentum and the plans continue to build on an environment that it didn't change insofar in terms of the low-income consumer being pressured and also allowing us to continue to drive these across the different parts of the country, to continue to grow and do better every day with our bottlers executing that strategy. So in a nutshell, we believe that we have good plans to continue the momentum that we have, and we expect North America in 2025 to continue the momentum that we built in 2025... Sorry, in 2026, with the momentum that we built in 2025.

Our next question comes from Rob Ottenstein with Evercore. Your line is open.

Great. Thank you very much, and please let me echo everyone's congratulations. So maybe moving in a slightly direction over on the FX side, could you maybe remind us, you know, your approach to currency? It's a little complicated, different from some other companies. You know, what the guidance entails, and how that is, where I think I'm seeing a 1% tailwind to the top line, but 3% on the bottom line, if I read that correctly. So what is driving that?

And then, you know, what is your philosophy in terms of currency benefits, whether you'll be investing that into the business or dropping it to the bottom line, perhaps making up for some of the, you know, as James mentioned before, you know, being stuck at $2.2 for a number of years due to currency. Is this a chance to catch up on that? And then if I may, you know, just kind of looking out, given your hedging policy multi-year, based on where we are today, do you see currency being, you know, a similar tailwind to 2027, or greater or less than the 2026 guidance? Thank you.

Thanks, Robert. Indeed, it's been a while since we've talked about FX and even longer since we've talked about FX tailwind. So, good to just anchor any conversation on FX to our broader growth equation. And, you know, at the root of that equation is a focus for us to win in each of our markets over time. And for that to happen, we have got to be able to invest in a consistent manner, which, among other things, allows us to price appropriately against both the local macros and the competitive backdrop. So that's part one. And sort of finding that part two is at the total enterprise level, we are committed to growing our U.S. dollar earnings, as we've demonstrated over the last few years. And so our hedging program is an enabler to manage both of these tensions.

So on the one hand, it removes the burden of non-market-driven fluctuations at the local level, so that local markets can focus on winning. And secondly, it provides clarity to us at the enterprise level to the task at hand, to grow U.S. dollar earnings. So that's sort of the strategic rationale as to why we hedge. And the question of any given year is, okay, how are we going to execute optimally against that? And for 2026, we've taken advantage to date of-

... some uncertainty regarding the US dollar to lock in benefits. The tailwinds that we reflected in our guidance today is driven largely by a weaker dollar in some of our larger emerging markets, most notably in Latin America and South Africa. And on the point about how far we go, we're well hedged against the G10 currencies. Decisions on emerging market currencies are very much linked to the economics of doing it. As you well know, the further out you go, the more challenging the economics become. So we're well hedged through 2026 on the G10, and we're as hedged as it makes sense economically on the emerging markets. So all of that is incorporated into the guidance, you know, 1% NSR, 3% net income.

We feel, we feel good about that being our going in position for the year. As I say, it helps local markets focus on what they need to focus on, and it certainly gives us our homework here at the enterprise level to deliver U.S. dollar earnings growth.

Our next question comes from Andrea Teixeira with J.P. Morgan. Your line is open.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. So James, congrats on, on your amazing run as CEO and now as chairman, and wishing Henrique continued success now as CEO. My question is on the impact of SNAP changes in the US, and then a clarification regarding the Mexican tax. Any initial read from the trade, and did that inform your conservative stance for organic sales growth in 2026? Thank you.

Yeah, sure. Thanks, Andrea. I'll do SNAP, and then Henrique can talk about the strategy in Mexico. Look, overall, SNAP, I think is gonna end up being manageable. It's a relatively small number when seen from a global basis, and we think it's manageable at the U.S. level. Clearly, we think that, you know, consumers should be allowed to choose, but regulation is regulation. What we think will happen is people will, you know, choose to spend the cash they got on certain things, and they'll use the SNAP credits where they're applicable.

At the end of the day, what that all boils down to is we have to make them the brands and the beverages that they want to have and want to be able to spend their disposable income on. That just puts the challenge on us to give them the category, the beverage, the brand, the pack size, the price point that most works for them. Net-net, we see it as a manageable impact in the U.S. and overall globally. So I'll let Henrique comment on how he's approaching the Mexican tax situation.

Yeah, on the Mexico one, yes, clearly, it, it is a headwind that came to us in the beginning of the year, already implemented. But it, this is a market that you know as well, that we have a system that has been for years working tremendously, you know, aligned, building the foundations of RGM and allowing us to play that impact of the taxes across the different packages, prices, and channels in a way that optimizes how we actually go and try to be in front of our consumers and our customers with an impact that continues to be acceptable, right, by the consumer and the, and, and the customers moving forward. There is another point that help us as well in 2026, is the fact that Mexico will host the World Cup event.

It's the biggest event on Earth in terms of engagement with consumers and customers as well. We are dialing up our campaigns there from day one. From January 1, we already had the campaign in place. On top of that, we're celebrating 100 years of the system in Mexico as well. All of that helps us to go and navigate through what is a headwind, but with all the tools that we have in place, as a very focused system, to navigate that throughout the year.

Remember that, as well, it's—we had other tax increases, you know, in the past, which we learned from the mistakes and the right movements that we made in 2014 moving forward, and we applied those learnings, this time as well, you know, to navigate these in the best way.

Our next question comes from Peter Galbo with Bank of America. Your line is open.

Hey, guys. Good morning. Thanks. Thanks for the question. John, I was hoping, just from your prepared remarks, to dig in on a couple of topics. I know we've talked about the mix impact, but maybe you could just give a little bit more detail. I think you specifically called out some timing of investments, and there was a bit commentary more focused on EMEA and Asia Pac, so just any additional detail there. Just the second part, John, in your remarks, I think you talked about maybe a headwind at the equity income line, not only related to some of the refranchising, but some other initiatives.

Just how much of a hit that is to the EPS for the year would be helpful as we try to think about bridging operating income down to EPS. Thanks very much.

Thank you. On the first question, yeah, maybe just a little bit more detail. Yeah, there were three primary drivers, and each of them roughly worth about the same, about a point each. So we've had the impact of some of the emerging markets growing faster than the developed markets, and typically, the emerging markets are slightly lower margin. Secondly, in a couple of the developed markets, we've had some categories that in the fourth quarter of a lower margin nature, not dramatically, but still lower performing better than the higher ones.

That was another point. Then the third point relates primarily to just some of the timing of marketing investments, primarily to both factor in the end of the year and the fast start programs that we have in place around the world. So it's very, it's the first time that I can remember going back, gosh, how many quarters, to have three of those types of effects hitting us in the same quarter. So it's a one-off more than something to think of as a trend going forward.

As James said earlier, you take a step back and look at the full year and where we've built our guidance for 2025, I think reflects more the full year view and that being a good benchmark on which to guide for next year or, sorry, for this year. I'm sorry, in the second - you had a second question? Yes. The-

Yeah. So, as you said, the primary driver that I alluded to is the sale of the Consolidated shares towards the end of the year. And, you know, there's a lot of cuts and takes that go into the equity income line, so I won't get into all of that detail. But the primary driver is the last equity income on Consolidated.

Our next question comes from Peter Grom of UBS. Your line is open.

Great. Thank you, and good morning, everyone, and congratulations to you both as well. I had a cash flow question, so just maybe with a much stronger year expected on the cash flow front in 2026. Would love an update on your capital allocation strategy, and specifically, whether you would consider leaning further into any of your four strategic priorities in the year ahead. Thanks.

Great, great topic. You know, I think the starting point here is to look at the underlying drivers. Over the last few years, we've had some unusual items, the IRS tax deposit and the fairlife contingent consideration, which I know on a year-to-year basis has been a little confusing, perhaps. But for me, what I look at is the underlying momentum coming from the business, and we've we see that having had a positive impact on a steady basis. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, there's you know, there's a very clear picture as to how we want to best utilize the cash that is coming in. When you go to the top two line items, we are investing in the business as the business needs.

More about a quarter of our capital investment this year and last year goes towards the franchises that we still own in Africa and India. We have highlighted investments we're making in our finished goods businesses elsewhere in the world, notably with fairlife. And we also have the opportunity in a number of parts of the world to shore up capacity for our concentrate business as it continues to be challenged in some areas to supply market needs. So that's been a priority, will continue to be, and there's no controversy about it. Secondly, with regards to the dividend, we continue to be very proud of the 63-year track record of growing the dividend, and we are supportive of that trend continuing.

And then what's left longer term is the idea of being both flexible and opportunistic when it comes to any inorganic opportunities and share repurchasing. For 2026, in particular, the idea of going into 2026 is to have as much optionality as possible to manage some specific variables. One of which is the outcome of the tax case that we have had with the IRS for many years, which we expect to certainly have a significant milestone towards the end of this year, early next year. And it's important for us to feel good about whatever outcome happens, either in that or in other areas, that we have what we need to deal with it.

Coca-Cola (KO) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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