Coca-Cola Europacific Partners PLC said it made an ‘encouraging’ start to the year, with ‘solid’ top-line growth.

The Uxbridge, west London-based soft drinks bottler said its quarterly outturn set it up ‘really well’ for the rest of the year.

Revenue totalled €4.15 billion in the first quarter of 2023, up 12% against the year prior. Revenue per unit case was €5.50, up 10%, while volume of 768 million unit cases was up 4.0% on a comparable basis.

European comparable volume was up 5.0% on a year before, while revenue per case was up 8.5%. Asia-Pacific volume was flat but revenue per case was up 13.5%.

Coca-Cola EP kept its full-year guidance unchanged, expecting comparable revenue growth of between 6% and 8% in 2023. Guidance for cost of sales per unit case comparable growth was also unchanged at around 8%.

The company declared a interim dividend of €0.67 per share, up 20% from €0.56.

‘We have had an encouraging start to the year, delivering solid top-line growth as consumers continued to enjoy our portfolio of leading brands across a broad pack offering. Our performance reflects great in-market execution with further growth in the home channel and the tail end of continued recovery of the away from home channel. This resulted in strong volume growth across our developed markets and albeit early in its transformation journey, Indonesia delivered volume growth in the core sparkling category. Our focus on revenue growth management and our headline price and promotion strategy also drove solid gains in revenue per unit case,’ Chief Executive Officer Damian Gammell said.

‘Although our first quarter has set us up really well for the rest of the year, it is typically our smallest. We are building on this momentum supported by fantastic activation plans. We remain focused on driving profitable revenue growth and solid free cash flow.’

The company operates in 29 countries. In 2021, the company, which already covered the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Portugal, the Benelux region, and Sweden and Norway, bought Sydney-based Coca-Cola Amatil from its independent shareholders and US brand owner Coca-Cola Co. This brought in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.

CCEP shares rose 0.6% to €56.60 each in London on Tuesday morning.

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