Coca-Cola Company chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent insists that if Coca-Cola can’t continue to grow sales in the US then the company only has itself to blame.Coke grew US unit case volumes 5% during the quarter and in the year to date, with quarterly net revenue up 148%, primarily due to the takeover of bottler CCE's former US operations, but also the firm’s success in passing price increases on to retailers.
The company’s overall revenue grew to over $12.24 billion for the 3 months ending September 30, compared with $8.42 billion for the same period of 2010.
Kent said that Coke had grown US sales since Q2 2010, while the country had the best demographics of any Western nation, which would see its population grow 30 million by 2020.
“Everyone that has bet against the US in the past has lost, and I respectfully believe that we’ll get it right from a macro perspective here,” Kent said.
He added: “So we have every reason to believe that this business, that if we can’t grow, it’s our fault. Simple as that. And we won’t accept that. And therefore, we are growing and will continue to grow.”
Coke had never said the US market was going to grow at the same rate as India or China, Kent said, but the firm was targeting “moderate growth rates” in the country, through leveraging on products such as Coke Zero (with continued double-digit US growth) and acceleration in sparkling and still beverages.
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