Coca-Cola Europacific Partners - Earnings Call - H1 2025
August 6, 2025
Transcript
Speaker 1
Hello and thank you for standing by and welcome to today's Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Half Year 2025 Results Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's remarks there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session you will need to press Star one and one on your telephone. I must advise you that this conference call is being recorded today. I would now like to hand the conference over to Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Strategy, Sarah Willett. Please go ahead. Sarah, thank you all for joining us today. I'm here with Damian Gammell, our CEO, and our CFO, Ed Walker. Before I hand over to Damian, a reminder of our cautionary statements: this call contains forward-looking management comments and other statements reflecting our outlook.
These comments should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary language contained in today's release as well as the detailed cautionary statements found in reports filed with the U.K., U.S., Dutch, and Spanish authorities. A copy of this information is available on our website at www.cocacolaep.com. Prepared remarks will be made by Damian. We will then turn the call over to your questions, and as otherwise stated, metrics presented today will be on a comparable and FX-neutral basis throughout. This will also be presented on an adjusted comparable basis, thus reflecting the results of CCEP and our Australia, Pacific, and Southeast Asia Business Unit, AP, as if the Coca-Cola Philippines transaction had occurred at the beginning of last year rather than in February when the acquisition completed. Following the call, a full transcript will be made available as soon as possible on our website.
I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Damian.
Speaker 0
Thank you, Sarah, and many thanks to everyone for joining us today. I'm really pleased that we continue to execute on our growth strategy, and I'd like to start today by thanking all of my great colleagues for their energy, hard work, and continued dedication to our customers and to our business. As always, this is supported by our strong, aligned relationships with The Coca-Cola Company, Monster, and our other brand partners. In short, our value creation is clearly evidenced by our impressive TSR of around 235% since 2016. We continue to deliver solid top and bottom line growth. Our cash returns are accelerating, having now completed around €460 million of share buybacks this year alongside paying a dividend in line with our annualized payout policy of around 50%, both within our disciplined capital allocation framework. Beyond today's results, we will also circle.
Speaker 2
Back to a few of the areas.
Speaker 0
We covered in detail at our recent investment in Manila to provide an update on progress made since then with a little bit more detail on what is coming around the corner. At that investor event we talked in detail about our resilient categories, so a brief reminder of one of the key slides we shared. Simply put, we are in the right categories including ARTD and Hot Coffee that are structurally growing, are profitable and diverse. We've got relevant share in our core NARTD category which grew by more than 5% in the last 12 months. We have a matchable scale and localness in our supply chain and in our frontline sales force. We're investing more than ever before in our key capabilities while accelerating productivity through technology and digital.
We are well positioned from both a portfolio and a geographical perspective with a material presence now across our 31 markets. In short, the fundamentals of our business remain strong and we operate in resilient and innovative consumer categories which are healthy and growing. I'd now like to turn to our performance. We're pleased to have delivered a solid first half. We continue to grow, share ahead of the market and create value for our customers. Given our year to date performance, strong commercial plans for the balance of the year, full year 2025 pricing in place, continued focus on productivity and a good start to the second half, we are pleased to be reaffirming our full year profit and cash guidance. We have updated by providing a range on full year revenue growth of 3 to 4% rather than approximately 4%.
This is driven by a slower than expected trajectory in Indonesia which in Q2 alone impacted group volumes by around 1%. Of course, we will update as the year progresses. Our first half interim dividend and ongoing share buybacks demonstrate the strength of our business and our ability to deliver continued shareholder value. We are winning today, but we're also focused on creating tomorrow. Strong cash generation is supporting record investment and future growth with multi-year plans in place and we are really starting to lock more value from tech and AI where we have been investing for many years. We're confident with the right strategy, all done sustainably to deliver on our mid-term growth objectives. I'd now like to turn to some key performance highlights. Our solid top line performance reflects underlying volume growth, best in class execution and solid gains in revenue per unit case.
This was driven by sustainable revenue and margin growth management, including our continued focus on price and promotional strategies in Europe. Easter timing and better weather supported return to volume growth in Q2, crucially with a better performance in our away from home business. Total first half volumes were, however, impacted by a weaker consumer backdrop in Indonesia, though we continue to remain excited about the long term opportunity and continue to focus on our transformation journey. We will touch on that a bit more later. Our other APS markets performed really well, including the Philippines. Despite cycling strong comparables of nearly 20% last year, we grew our overall value share by 10 basis points year to date in a category which grew in volume and value both in Europe and APS. The market remains as competitive as ever.
As we said before, we continue to take a multi-year view on our promotional and pricing strategies. We remain focused on driving profitable revenue growth and creating value for the category whilst recognizing that remaining affordable and relevant is important for our consumers. Our strong top line performance, together with the delivery of our efficiency programs, drove solid operating profit growth of 7.2% with operating margin expansion both in Europe and in APS. We generated solid comparable free cash flow after investing in capacity, more coolers, technology, and digital, and we delivered cash returns to shareholders of over €800 million. Ed will go into more detail on our financials shortly. As ever, our business performance reflects our great people, great brands, great execution, all done sustainably. A few brief highlights on our first half. Starting with people, we continue to build the capabilities of our teams.
For example, our partnership with the London Business School has upskilled over 500 of our top leaders and has now been extended to another 3,500 colleagues. We continue to be recognized internally and externally. In 2025, the Top Employers Institute recognized Coca-Cola Europacific Partners across all of our major markets, and we're really excited to welcome around 60 new colleagues into our new integrated Shared Service Center in Manila, which Ed will also touch on a bit later. Onto our brands, we're extremely privileged to make, move, and sell the world's most loved brands in which we continue to invest and drive appeal to even more consumers. Category highlights are included in today's release.
The return of the global iconic Share a Coke campaign was well executed and well received by customers and consumers, and the launch of This Is My Taste for Diet Coke is gaining traction by providing a fresh look and identity. Overall, it is fantastic that in Europe, for example, Coca-Cola trademark remains the biggest FMCG brand. Monster had a phenomenal first half with volumes up nearly 15% fueled by great innovation. This is especially the case with Ultra and zero-sugar variants where volumes were up over 20% alongside ongoing distribution gains. We grew retail value share in energy by around 140 basis points during the period in flavors. As we highlighted at our investor event, we are increasingly focusing on winning with flavor extensions and zeros across Fanta, including Raspberry and Apple, and of course in Sprite. Excluding Indonesia, these brands are a bigger part of the mix.
Fanta Zero volumes grew by around 7% and Sprite Zero by around 13%. The transition from Fuze Tea to Fuze Tea Iberia is ahead of plan and we continue to expand in the exciting ARTD category with total volumes up around 9% supported by new flavor variants for Absolute Sprite alongside the launch of Bacardi and Coke. Finally, the Sports category continues to perform well, supported by the new Red Peach Aquarius variant in Spain, as well as larger pack sizes including 1 liter Powerade alongside our cans. As you can see, we delivered innovation across the board through packaging, flavor extensions, special collaborations, and more. A bit later I will share with you some of the brand plans in place for this year and beyond. We have said this before, but at CCEP we're fanatical about delivering best-in-class execution and activation, whether that's in store, online, or in outlet.
All done locally to drive distribution and visibility every day, we continue to create leading value for our category, adding nearly €450 million of value to our retail customers. Here I'm anchoring back to what we shared with you at our investor event and our Four More strategy. We love creating engaging displays, especially around key holiday events, with the cornerstone and hallmark being a Share a Coke campaign I referred to earlier. This is all driven by the largest sales force in FMCG, over 12,000 total powered by technology, and when our customers are buying more often, what we want is more volume. When you get more volume, we leverage our revenue management capability to drive more value sustainably. These examples show how we're bringing this to life. We've launched an 850ml PET for smaller households in Germany, one of our biggest markets.
In markets like GB, Spain, and others, extra free and extra filled is a great way to manage affordability given ongoing cost of living challenges. We continue to focus on premiumization, whether it be with more multipack mini cans in France, multipack mini PET in Australia, or more returnable glass. We're increasing our share of cold drink space by investing in more coolers across Coke Trademark, Monster. We have new customer wins including Kinopolis in Spain and Costco Wholesale in Australia, all helping our brands reach more households. We continue to accelerate our digital capabilities to reach more people, like working even more with The Coca-Cola Company on social media campaigns and by adding even better functionality to our B2B portal, myCCEP.com. Having delivered a record $2.3 billion in revenue in Europe last year, we've grown again by almost 10% in half one.
Now on to our sustainability highlights before handing over to Ed. We continue to be recognized externally, including retaining our inclusion on CDP's A List for Climate now for the ninth year. Ongoing progress in the area of packaging collection remains a core focus, including new recycling partnerships in our Pacific region, and we continue to invest in sustainability-focused technology through our venture arms across ingredients, manufacturing, and packaging to support our decarbonisation journey. For example, we've invested in a climate tech company that converts wastewater into a source of renewable electricity. We're currently trialing this technology at one of our sites in GB. This is just one example of how we're making CCEP a more sustainable and a better business. I'd now like to hand over to Ed to talk about the financials in more detail.
Speaker 2
Ed, thanks Damian, and thank you all for joining us today. For H1, we delivered revenue of €10.3 billion, which is up 2.5%. Comparable volumes, selling day adjusted, were marginally ahead, up 0.3% despite the challenging backdrop in Indonesia. Excluding Indonesia, volumes were up around 1%, supported by Europe returning to volume growth in Q2. Our Q2 revenue was up 5.4%. In total, we delivered strong revenue per unit case growth of 3.8%, reflecting positive headline pricing and promotional optimization with a continued focus on consumer price relevance, all built on data and insights. We benefited from slightly earlier headline pricing in GB, and we had favorable pack mix supported by the growth of Monster, favorable pack mix driven by the growth of smaller formats such as mini cans, and favorable geographic mix.
As a result of the volume decline in Indonesia, which is at a lower revenue per case, cost of sales per unit case increased by 3.6%. This reflects our increased revenue per unit case, driving higher concentrate costs through the incidence pricing model and the increase in soft drinks taxes. While a little higher than our guidance for the full year, this is mostly phasing related given our exit from the Beam Suntory relationship in Australia, which will generate a mix benefit during H2. OpEx as a percentage of revenue was 21.8%, an improvement of 50 basis points, and I will touch more on that later in the coming slides. These elements combine to drive operating profit of €1.4 billion, up 7.2%, and an operating margin of 13.5%, an expansion of around 60 basis points, including a modest basis point improvement in our gross margin percentage.
We delivered comparable diluted earnings per share of €2.02, up 3.1% on an FX-neutral basis, lower than the 7.2% growth in operating profit, driven by our previously guided increase in our effective tax rate to 26%. This impact is most significant for H1 than it will be for the full year due to the phasing of last year's tax expense. Comparable free cash flow generation continues to be a core priority for CCEP, and we delivered €425 million in H1. This was after investing in key projects such as the addition of new aseptic lines in France and Australia, expanded ARTD capacity for Jack Daniels and Coke, and of course more coolers, which Damian referenced earlier. We remain on track to deliver comparable free cash flow of at least €1.7 billion for the year.
Finally, on shareholder returns, our first half dividend was $0.79 per share with around $460 million of our €1 billion share buyback now completed. Now on to efficiency and productivity, where, as you know, we have a proven track record of delivery. Our current program aims to deliver between €350 million and €400 million of savings by 2028 and is firmly on track, delivering slightly earlier than our original plan. We continue to optimize our network in market to strengthen our local operating model, such as the rationalization of distribution sites in Germany, the consolidation of production into fewer, bigger, more efficient plants like at Grigny in Paris, which will end up serving nearly half of the French market, and in Indonesia we recently announced the closure of three single line production sites.
In May, I spoke in detail about the development of our leading shared service capabilities, which until now are focused on Bulgaria. In July, as Damian Gammell mentioned earlier, I attended the opening of our new integrated service Shared Service Center in Manila, which will continue to ramp up as the year progresses. I know, having also visited Bulgaria only last week, that the growing capabilities of our shared services will continue to be a significant source of value creation and competitive advantage, all enabled by technology. Before I hand back to Damian, let me update you on our full year 2025 guidance, which reflects our current view of market conditions. Our profit and cash flow guidance remain unchanged.
From a revenue perspective, we're pleased to have delivered a solid first half performance driven by consistent revenue per unit case growth and supported by a return to volume growth in Europe. In Q2, we've had a strong start to the second half and are encouraged to have seen European volume growth continue, more than offsetting a slowdown in Indonesia and the recent impacts of flooding in the Philippines. With five months of the year still to go, including the key European summer, we're now indicating a range on revenue for the full year of 3% to 4%, with the upper end remaining in line with our previous guidance, supported by our very strong commercial plans. We expect to see volume growth for the full year with growth in Europe and in APAC, despite the weakness in Indonesia on cost of sales per case.
As I mentioned earlier, we still expect this to grow by around 2% for the year, with the second half benefiting from the exit of the incentorial relationship in Australia. While our guidance for full year operating profit remains at around 7% on an FX neutral basis, we are impacted by a higher effective tax rate at 26% versus 25% last year, growth in non-controlling interest given the positive outlook in the Philippines, and a slightly higher finance cost. Finally, on FX, although our guidance is provided on an FX neutral basis based on current spot rates, we do anticipate a full year FX headwind of around 150 basis points to revenue and almost 200 basis points to operating profit. Thank you, and now back to Damian. Thanks, Ed.
Speaker 0
Just a reminder now of our midterm objectives which we reaffirmed in May. This was a slide that we also talked to in May covering our focus areas that you can expect us to keep revisiting as we look to our next phase of growth. I'd like to touch on a few of these now. I've already mentioned the fantastic execution we've seen both the Share a Coke campaign and on This Is My Taste, our campaign to reinvigorate Diet Coke, which has supported an improved performance in both GB and Australia during the half.
There's much more to come across original taste and lights, starting with the terrific Star Wars collaboration, a favorite of mine on limited edition cans, a new Time for Co campaign, and another favorite of mine, the exciting new tie up with the English Premier League, which will see packs in your team's colors during the upcoming season. I also referenced earlier the phenomenal performance in energy during the half with strong share gains and volume growth. There remains plenty of headroom for growth in this category given lower per caps relative to the U.S. As we highlighted in May, our step up in cooler placements is supporting wider distribution away from home, helping to close the gap relative to Coke, and it's working with Monster growth in away from home of 20% during half one.
Early days in our exciting journey in the fast growing alcohol Ready to Drink category in Australia, however, we're already a solid number two with around a 20% share in a category that's over 15% of total alcohol. Now is the time to further leverage that expertise we've built up over nearly 20 years in the market by aligning our portfolio with The Coca-Cola Company. With that in mind and as previously discussed, the relationship with Beam Suntory came to an end at the end of June. While this creates a near term headwind reflecting its higher revenue per unit case, as you will see detailed on the slide, this is the right decision for the long term. We are now able to build an even stronger brand platform starting with Bilson's and the launch of Bacardi and Coca-Cola which comes to the Australian market in the next few months.
Another area of alignment has been in Spain in Ready to Drink Tea where we are transitioning away from Nest Tea to the stronger Fuze Tea platform. Brilliant execution and marketing are delivering both distribution and performance ahead of plan, demonstrated by our number one year to date category value share with Fuze Tea. We've also recently reformulated and relaunched our Ready to Drink Tea in Indonesia, Fuze Tea. This will be rolling out in a variety of new flavors including Passion Fruit and Apple with Lemongrass and with a new look over the coming months. Touching now on Indonesia, as highlighted at our investor event, the macroeconomic slowdown is impacting household consumption which has affected local, regional, and international brands alike. As Ed said earlier, excluding Indonesia, volumes were up around 1% in the first half.
Putting aside the near term headwinds, we remain excited about the long term and significant opportunity in Indonesia. Close to 300 million people, half of whom are under 30, very few of whom drink alcohol. We are pushing on at pace, particularly with the transformation of our network and route-to-market model Ed mentioned earlier and the closure of three single line plants to make us even more efficient. We've also taken further steps towards completing our move away from direct delivery to a partner distributor model with Bali now underway and Java set to complete during half two. This will give us the ability to effectively grow distribution and availability as we continue to develop the Sparkling category and the reach of our brands supported by The Coca-Cola Company to what we see as a very exciting consumer landscape of the future.
The last area I wanted to touch on ahead of taking your questions, and arguably one of the most important, is around digital and technology. We've talked before about operating from multiple platforms, our legacy as a business of mergers, the alignment of those systems as we move to our new technology platform, SAP S/4HANA, is progressing to plan with our first market, Germany, starting to go live in H2. Whilst nobody could ever describe SAP transitions as exciting, the unification of our data on one platform and the simplification of process is enabling us to start to unlock more value through our multi-year investments in tech and AI, leveraging solutions and insights to drive top line growth and productivity, and that is exciting.
We continue to evolve and improve Redone, our proprietary data-driven field sales tool, which gives every rep all of the information and analytics they need to help optimize routes, prioritize visits, review performance, and tailor our actions to each specific customer. We recently introduced an AI-based tool which, through image recognition, enables them to dynamically track and record key store measurements like share of visible inventory. CAM360 is now used by our 850 key account managers to effectively partner with their customers, enabling the creation of joint plans and effective trade investments. It supports areas such as PAC price and promo simulations, price elasticity modeling, all of which are a critical part of leading revenue and margin growth management capabilities.
We've recently begun piloting a new eB2B platform in Spain, Up We Go, which greatly simplifies the ordering process and strengthens our relationship with partner distributors in what remains a fragmented market. A lot more to come in this space. Back to where I started, we're pleased to have delivered a solid first half performance. Given our year-to-date performance, strong commercial plans for the balance of the year, full year 2025 pricing in place, continued focus on productivity, and a good start to the second half, we are pleased to be reaffirming our full year profit and cash guidance. It's an honor to lead a great business with strong fundamentals in place and operating in categories that remain healthy and growing. Finally, a quick reminder of our investment story on a page as we shared in May.
We're confident we have the right strategy, done sustainably, to deliver on our mid-term growth objectives. We are winning today, but we're also focusing on creating tomorrow. Thank you all for joining us, and I'll now hand back to the operator to facilitate your questions.
Speaker 1
Operator, thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. As a reminder, we kindly request only one question per analyst. If you would like to ask a question, please press Star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press Star one and one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A queue. This will only take a few moments. Our first question comes from the line of Bonnie Herzog from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Your line is open. All right, thank you. Hi everyone. I just had a question on your guidance. I mean, you touched on this.
You did lower the top line slightly, but it does still imply an acceleration of growth on the top line in the back half, but essentially stable growth on the bottom line in 2H versus 1H, I guess suggesting higher expected OpEx. Hoping to get a little bit more color on the drivers of this and maybe a sense of the drivers in terms of contribution you're expecting from price mix versus volume growth in the second half. Thank you.
Speaker 0
Hi, Bonnie. I'll take the first part and then hand it to Ed. We have seen our business accelerate coming out of Q1. We had a very strong Q2 both in Europe and APS, and we see that continuing. You're absolutely correct. Even with the slight change on the revenue top line, we do see acceleration through the second half of the year. Obviously, our focus will turn into 2026. As I mentioned in the comments, a big part of that has obviously been volume growth coming back in our business in Q2. We see that continuing. It's also a reflection of the price mix. Our price mix per case, I think, was excellent in the first half of the year. Again, that reflects pricing being in place right the way through to the end of the year. That gives us confidence in our top line number.
I'll pass on to Ed just to kind of talk to the bottom line changes between half one and half two.
Speaker 2
Yes, thanks, Damian. And thanks, Bonnie. We were very pleased with H1, you know, 2.5% revenue, very well leveraged to a 7.2% profit for H2. Although the volume is greater, we see more of that coming from volume itself and a bit less from revenue per case. As Damian mentioned, the geographical mix will not be as much of a benefit in the second half. We expect more from volume. We also have some OpEx phasing between the halves. That's why we're assuming a similar 7% profit delivery for the second half.
Speaker 1
Okay, thanks. I'll pass it on. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Simon Hales from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Speaker 0
Oh, hi, Damian and Sarah. Damian, I wonder if you could just sort of touch a little bit more on your comments around the stronger Q3 trading or the good Q3 trading you've seen to date. You know, what have you been seeing a little bit more regionally, particularly perhaps in Europe, as the better weather through July and hopefully into early August been helping maybe a little bit of color as to the continuation, perhaps you're seeing of away from home growth in Europe and the drivers around that. How broadly spread is that across different markets? Then associated with that, the APS performance into Q3, given the flooding you called out in the Philippines, how should we think about the scale of the impact that may have on the Philippines business for the rate for the second half? Thanks, Simon.
Maybe I'll touch on the second part and then come back to the more European summer questions. Obviously we've reflected in our guidance some of the tougher weather comps in the Philippines. That's obviously reflected in what we share today. I'm also pleased that we've seen a stabilization in Indonesia, particularly in July and through August. I think that's great for our teams to start seeing some reward for a lot of effort. That's certainly something we're looking to continue into the second half and more importantly into 2026. All of that's reflected in the outlook for APS. Just to call it out again, our businesses in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands also had a really, really strong performance as well year to date. In Europe, you're quite right. As we sit in London today, I'm happy looking out the window to see the sun shining.
We have had some really good weather across Europe that really came in end of June. Definitely had a big impact on our July business, which was great and clearly we're looking forward to seeing that continue through August. It's pretty broad across all of our markets. I'd say if you look at the first half numbers, GB is a standout and again, obviously that reflected the strong performance to June. Then also we've seen the benefit of that warmer weather in July in GB as well. Long may continue. It's great for the category and it's something that we're definitely enjoying and it's definitely helping. Brilliant.
Speaker 2
Thank you.
Speaker 1
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Edward Mundy from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Speaker 0
Afternoon, Damian and Ed. Just to come back to Europe and the volume inflection that you've seen. I think it was pretty important to get volume growth back into Europe this year after the difficult year last year. As you take a step back on what you've seen year to date, within Europe, I think it's fair to say the revenue per case has probably been quite a bit stronger than what would be modeling medium term as part of that model. Does this give you confidence, putting weather to one side, in the ability of the business to grow volumes within Europe over the medium term in terms of what you're seeing there? Absolutely, Ed. I think volume growth is a key focus for us in Europe, well, across all of our markets.
As you rightly pointed out, particularly in Europe, we've seen that in Q2, and we'll see that in the second half of the year as well. Clearly, our priority is to try and get that volume accelerated. I think some of the campaigns that we have coming, whether it's Star Wars, whether it's EPL in the UK, whether it's some of the innovation around Fanta and Sprite, a lot of this will roll into 2026, certainly provides us with the consumer excitement to drive volume. We have seen volume growth in Q2. As I said, we'd like to see that accelerate as we go through the year. Our price mix has over-delivered, and we've made some, I think, sensible choices around price promo in some of our markets, and that's reflected in certainly a higher price mix in the P&L.
As I look midterm to come back to your question, I see volume growth in Europe. I see Away from Home growing again. That's a different narrative than we've had for quite a while. That's exciting. We're committed to driving Away from Home. We're taking a very active role in that through cooler placements. Share a Coke was a great example of trying to excite consumers, and Away from Home, also Monster, and Away from Home is becoming a bigger part of our narrative as we place coolers but also secure listings of our energy portfolio, and probably not your typical energy outlets like QSR and FSR, but obviously that works. If I move beyond that, you get into some probably more medium term initiatives around ARTD, which certainly on the revenue side contribute obviously a bit less on volume.
Putting all that together, I think to me gives us a lot of confidence in midterm volume growth. Couple of passion points that I think are worth calling out, certainly Coke Classic. You know, we're launching a half liter can in some of our markets. We're bringing more innovation around Coke Classic. For all of us who live in the UK, I think it's fantastic to see Diet Coke back as a focus for the system with, you know, with This Is My Taste for Diet Coke campaign. You know, that's starting to work and clearly again that's another initiative that would support volume growth in what is the most competitive segment of soft drinks, but also the fastest growing. Yeah, all of that together gives us confidence in midterm volume growth that starts in Q2.
It's got to continue in Q3 and into Q4, and that gives us confidence for the full year. Great, thank you.
Speaker 1
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Lauren Lieberman from Barclays. Please go ahead. Great, thanks. Good morning. First, I have to comment on the Q and A slide in the deck. Very, very cute, guys. I like it. If anyone hasn't noticed, you got to check it out. Question is, Damian, I felt like you had some pretty pointed commentary on the competitiveness in the market and emphasizing that you take a, quote, multi-year view on the approach. Just kind of wondering what's beneath that. Are you seeing particular flare ups in given markets, given categories? That feels a bit different than maybe what we would have been talking about.
Speaker 0
A couple of months back.
Speaker 1
Thanks.
Speaker 0
Thanks, Lauren. Not significantly different, I would say, to what. What's been really part of our story in Europe. I mean, it's a very exciting, high-growth, profitable category. It always remains competitive, whether you look at soft drinks or energy. I don't see a massive change in that space. I do see in some of our markets we have had maybe a little bit less promo intensity as we haven't quite landed some of our commercial agreements with some of our bigger customers. It hasn't got to the point of a lot of delistings, as you may have seen in other industries. Clearly, that's something that we continue to manage. That comes back to Ed's point in terms of really managing the category for sustainable value creation.
We will continue to make decisions beyond the calendar year to make sure that we maintain solid, profitable growth for us and our customers, and we continue to do that. It's not, I would say, more challenging than other years. It just remains part of the ongoing doing business in Europe. We have seen some aggressive promo pricing from some of our competitors, particularly in GB. Again, that's not a new dynamic and it's something that we're responding to. We've got a very profitable business in away from home, and as we've talked about before, we look at our pricing and promo decisions through that lens to make sure we continue to protect and grow that away from home business. It's a good competition, I'd say, particularly in energy. I wouldn't say it's much different to previous years, Lauren.
Speaker 1
Okay, great. Thanks. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Richard Withagen from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Speaker 0
Yeah. Hi, Damian and Sarah, one question on the Share a Coke campaign. It's been launched earlier this year and Damian, you mentioned it's been well received. What are some of the metrics that you track to analyze the success of the Share a Coke campaign? What are the pros and cons.
Speaker 2
Of a global campaign compared to a.
Speaker 0
More local or international company? Thanks, Richard. I mean, I think with our brand portfolio and with a full calendar, we'll continue to have global and local and both of them, I think, play a great role in our growth story. I think Share a Coke was particularly impactful because it's a great example, I think, of going above the line, whether that's on social media all the way through the packaging in store, and it's obviously something that excites consumers. We've seen that on our customers. When we think about metrics that we would look at, we clearly look at our way to display, share of shelf, distribution, and obviously campaigns like that allow us to drive more of that.
We'd look at weekly and monthly drinking consumption, and we see that improving, and then over time it'll reflect in brand health metrics that we look at with The Coca-Cola Company, but it's clearly innovative across our cola portfolio. A lot of focus on single serve, and that really helps our price mix that you've seen in our results. We were particularly happy, and it kind of goes back to what I talked about in terms of getting behind that away from home growth. We talked about it in Q1 that Share a Coke would be more skewed towards single serve, and that would definitely help support growth in away from home, and we're seeing that. Still early days in some of the metrics, but overall really positive and, yeah, very well received.
I think it was eight years since we last did it, so a lot of people were really happy to see it come back, and certainly we're happy to see it coming through in our volume and price mix numbers. Thanks, Amy.
Speaker 1
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Eric Serotta from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Speaker 2
Great.
Speaker 1
Can you.
Speaker 2
Good morning.
Speaker 0
Good afternoon, guys.
Speaker 2
Can you talk a bit about the.
Speaker 0
Acceleration that you've seen in Away From.
Speaker 2
Home this year and any read into.
Speaker 0
The state of the consumer from that.
Speaker 2
Damian, you talked in Manila about the.
Speaker 0
I think your language was sparkling. Growth in Europe represents, you know, one of the biggest midterm opportunities for CCEP. Just when you look at the scale of that business, maybe you could revisit or talk about some recent initiatives to reinvigorate that sparkling growth in Europe. Yeah, thanks, Eric. I mean, sparkling has been growing in Europe pretty consistently in revenue. I think where we've been more focused on is driving, as we mentioned earlier, more volume within that revenue price mix. We're definitely seeing that in Q2. As a category in Europe, it's very healthy, it's quite dynamic. There's a lot of innovation, both from us, from others, and that's really been a consistent theme in revenue growth. I think what we've recognized is that as volume becomes part of that, it's a more sustainable outlook and that's really what we're focused on. We've seen that in Q2.
Obviously we benefited from Easter, so that definitely helped our Q2 number. We expect to see it in Q3 and Q4. Overall it's really maintaining that revenue growth but bringing volume as a bigger part of the mix. That's our priority for the rest of this year. It's a priority for 2026 and I think into 2027. We certainly see that opportunity. For CCEP particularly, we see that in colas on the back of particularly a stronger zero platform and Diet Coke. As we talk to Manila, we under index in our flavor share and I think we see the opportunity to grow volume and flavors to support that revenue growth. Just coming back to away from home, we do see more people out and about. Obviously weather helps, so clearly terraces are full, people are out enjoying what has been a good period of weather in Europe.
We are seeing more people returning to the office. That has been a drag, particularly in our large cities. I think companies and employees are back in the office more than they ever were. That certainly helps our away from home business. I think ourselves and a number of others have been supporting that part of the market over a number of quarters. Whether that's cooler placements, consumer innovation, investment in signage, menus and ultimately it takes a bit of time, but that starts to feed through into footfall and incidents and we're definitely seeing that. Also, some of our bigger customers like McDonald's are pivoting their menu offerings and that seems to be driving a bit more traffic. It's great to see it returning to growth. It's obviously something we want to see on a multi-year basis.
As I talked about in Manila, we've got to be a key contributor and driver of that. I come back to those elements that we can control: better consumer engagement like Share a Coke, better cold drink availability and presence in store with more coolers, better execution on menus and incidents through better price mix, combo meals, and activation. That will continue through the summer and into next year. All of that gives us confidence that the consumer is in a slightly better position away from home in Europe than we've seen previously. Having said that, we're in retail, and maintaining that affordability offering at the lower end is going to be a key part of our offering. As we've talked about before, I think it's important that that also goes hand in hand with the premiumization that we've done a good job on over a number of years.
Whether it's mini cans, glass, small PET, all consumers are not equal and we see an opportunity to drive an offering across all of those price points and that's what we're doing.
Speaker 2
Great, thanks so much. I'll pass it on.
Speaker 1
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Nadine Sarwat from Bernstein. Please go ahead. Hi. Thank you. Good afternoon guys. One question for me. Coming back to the medium term guidance, I hear you, Sarah, on Indonesia being a headwind that was large enough to at least make you have the full year guidance now as a range versus a previous more specific number. If we turn our attention to the medium term growth algo, does Indonesia impact your view? I get that you've reiterated that algo, but are you assuming that Indonesia then subsequently accelerates or do you feel like you have enough levers elsewhere to offset the weakness? Thank you.
Speaker 2
I think, Nadine, when we look at Indonesia, we're not assuming that there's a significant turnaround in the medium term that drives our 4% on the top line. We've talked before about high single digit, which I still think is the right longer term plan for Indonesia. Whilst it's disappointing that the changes that have been made haven't had more an impact and the macro effect is clearly playing on the numbers, we should keep in mind as well that it's a relatively small part of our business. It's a big opportunity going forward, but it doesn't have a very material effect on our numbers year in, year out. The long term opportunity still remains. No, we're not dependent on a very significant turnaround to deliver our mid term objectives.
Speaker 0
Yeah. Just to build on what Ed said, Nadine, and to give some credit to our team in Indonesia, we have seen a slight improvement in our performance coming out of July and into August. Again, you know, we believe in the long term opportunity of that market. Ed's point has more of an impact on revenue and cases, but less on the bottom line, which is really reflected in our guidance today.
Speaker 1
Very clear. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Matthew Ford from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Speaker 2
Thank you. Afternoon, Damian. Ed, just a question on COGS, actually, just if you could update us on.
Speaker 0
The situation for 2025.
Speaker 2
Where are you in terms of hedging, and then I suppose more interestingly into 2026.
Speaker 0
If you comment at all on any of the major moving parts you're expecting for 2026 without perhaps committing to a.
Speaker 2
Number, an update on where you.
Speaker 0
Are hedging wise for that year as well. Thank you.
Speaker 2
Yeah, thanks, Matt. We continue to be very pleased with the cost evolution and COGS in general. We've been enjoying basically flat commodities for this year, and we anticipate that will roll into 2026 as you'd expect at this point. We're very well hedged now for this year. On all the main commodity types, we're over 90% hedged. We're around 60% at this stage for 2026, which is roughly where we would like to be at this stage of the year, leaving some room still to take advantage of any favorable movements in the market. Actually, some of the volatility that we've seen on the forward rate during 2025 has worked to our advantage. We've secured some nice forward prices on a number of our commodities.
The outlook is still good with relatively flat commodities in 2026, which certainly makes life a bit easier in some parts of the P&L as we look forward.
Speaker 0
Great, thank you.
Speaker 1
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Charlie Higgs from Redburn. Please go ahead.
Speaker 0
Yeah. Hi Damian, Ed, hope you're both well. My question is on Australia, where Q2 marked the four year anniversary of the Amatil deal. If you go back in time, that Australia business earned a very healthy margin but perhaps wasn't being run quite as effectively as it could have been. You then came in and trimmed the promotions, trimmed bulk water, realigned Kirk, et cetera. As Ed was saying, we've still got the Manila Shared Service Center potentially in the background. Can you maybe just provide a bit of an update on where we are on the Australia margin turnaround story and whether you think it could perhaps get back to the very high teens, low 20s level that it previously earned. Thank you. Thanks, Charlie. Yeah, obviously we're really pleased with our Australia business and the changes that have been made over a number of years.
It's far from over in terms of the opportunity from our perspective. We're going through quite a big change and probably from a structural portfolio realignment, the last big one, which is the Beam Suntory change that's going to allow us to become a bit more efficient but also align our brand portfolio more to our global footprint. I think that's a positive. In some ways that was a bit of the unlocker with the Kirk deal as well, to just line up with The Coca-Cola Company and we've seen the benefits of that and we will see that also in alcohol. It will probably take a bit more time but we're excited about that change. That will allow us also to look at our cost base. We've invested some good capital into Australia to become more efficient. All of that will support margin expansion.
We're not guiding to a target on a market specific number, but if I look at the macros in Australia with its GDP, population growth, some of the great commercial work that we're leading down there, margin expansion due to the top line is definitely something we're excited about. Maybe I'll pass to Ed who'll talk a little bit more about the shared services opportunity as well that we see coming to play.
Speaker 2
Yeah, thanks, Damian.
Speaker 0
Yes, Joe.
Speaker 2
I mean we're very pleased with the progress. We don't give the specific Australia profit numbers, but what I can tell you is that our revenue from 2021 has grown at a CAGR if you look until the end of 2024 by 8% per year. Fantastic revenue performance and we've done better than that on the bottom line. We have had operating profit margin accretion over that time period and as you called out, I think it's due to the investments we've made in capacity which have helped reduce the cost to serve, promo RMGM capabilities that we've leveraged in the market, and then some portfolio rationalization both in terms of focusing on the core part of the portfolio that add value, but also the work with Coca-Cola in terms of aligning the role of the different brands within the portfolio.
Last, but certainly not least, we've taken advantage of our shared service capabilities. Some activities out of Australia have already moved to Bulgaria and we're looking forward to moving more stuff to Manila with the opening of our new centre. Great progress. Really pleased and more to come though.
Speaker 0
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Robert Edward Ottenstein from Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.
Speaker 0
Great. Thank you very much. Damian, it's been about two years, I think, since you rolled out Jack and Coke in Europe. I was just wondering if you could maybe stand back and give an assessment of how that and other ARTD initiatives have gone. Any surprises, disappointments, what have you had to change and how you see that developing over time. Thank you. Thanks, Robert. I mean, overall, really pleased with where we are, particularly in a big market like Germany. I think some of the learnings that we've taken on board from our experience in Australia is it's got to be a portfolio play, you know. I talked about Bacardi and Coke, I talked about Sprite and Absolut. We certainly see a stronger performance across all of those brands, including Jack and Coke, when we go to the market with a category play.
That takes a bit of time, but clearly, we're seeing the benefits of that quarter by quarter and year on year. Along with energy in terms of absolute volume growth versus prior year, it's up there in revenue growth, it's even higher just given it's all single serve. It's something that we're looking to expand across all of our markets in Europe. It's been a quick two years, but I think the capability and the brand offering that we have now sets us up for many more years of exciting growth.
Obviously, when you talk about Europe, the changes that are referenced in Australia are also very exciting because acquiring a brand like Bilson's I think demonstrates that we will be opportunistic with The Coca-Cola Company in a category like this where maybe having local brands from time to time plays a bigger role, but the bulk of the growth will come from those global brand partnerships. Overall, really good, Robert. More to come.
Speaker 2
I think what's particularly pleasing as well is we're really gaining momentum. These things don't happen overnight. It takes a while to get to know the category, for the retailers to better understand the category. We've certainly seen an acceleration in the last six months to a year in ARTD, particularly in Europe.
Speaker 1
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mitch Collett from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Speaker 2
Hi, Damien.
Speaker 0
Hi, Ed.
Speaker 2
Hi, Sarah. I think the tagline from the CMD.
Speaker 0
Was four or more.
Speaker 2
Clearly, fiscal 2025 has been impacted by.
Speaker 0
A few factors outside of your control. How do you feel about that ambition for 4 or more beyond fiscal 2025? Do you think fiscal 2026 is going to be at that range or above 4? I appreciate you're probably not that likely to guide now, but can you talk.
Speaker 2
About how you think about fiscal 2026.
Speaker 0
The steps that are going to take you there? Perhaps it's what you put on slide 15, but I'd be interested to know what you're expecting to do to be able to accelerate to 4% or more. Yeah, thanks, Mitch. I mean, there's no change in our conviction around top line growth at CCEP. I think Q2 was a solid quarter, demonstrated that. I think if you look at what we've guided for the full year, you'll see that growth continuing in Q3 and Q4. We have had a couple of drags on revenue certainly in the first half of this year. Some of them may continue into the second half, which is why we've updated today as we have. We've had the tea transition in Spain, obviously. We've got Suntory out of Australia. We've had Indonesia, although as I said, that is starting to show signs of improvement.
Some of those are 2025 events. For 2026 and beyond, I think you'll expect us to stick with our 4% revenue guidance. As we continue to build out our portfolio and get smarter at some of the things that we're doing, our ambition for growth is only, in my view, only going to get higher. I think a 4% guidance is a pretty good number, particularly with a 7% bottom line and that free cash flow. To answer your question, no change from Manila, doesn't feel that long ago and certainly a good Q2 and a good start to Q3 continues to support that midterm outlook on growth.
Speaker 2
Understood, thank you.
Speaker 1
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sanjeet Aujla from UBS. Please go ahead.
Speaker 0
Hey, Damian, Ed, Sarah. Most of mine have been asked already, but just a point of clarification on some of the commercial agreements missed out on in Europe. Is that something that's impacting through the course of the rest of the year or some of that being resolved and which markets in particular were impacted? Please. Thanks. Yeah, no, so I mean, these are quite typical, Sanjeet. As you know, we try and, you know, land pricing and commercial terms for a year. We don't always land them in the time frame that we'd like to. Again, nothing out of the ordinary. They were resolved mainly in Q2, mainly a little bit in Germany and a little bit in Sweden were the two markets that I think were most impacted, but now in a good place for certainly the rest of this year.
No lingering effects from those as we go into the second half of the year. Got it. Just a quick follow up on Indonesia. Damian, you're talking about some sequential improvement and stabilization. I'm assuming that means stabilization in the rate of decline as opposed to getting back to growth. Depends on what period you pick to compare to. I'd say, you know, genuinely on our sparkling portfolio, we start to see stabilization which is really encouraging. I think on tea we're probably a bit off that, you know, we're launching a new tea format and a new tea pack and that's only going to come in in Q3. I'd say on sparkling, yes, we have a bit of a way to go but on a combined level it certainly feels better than it has been feeling which is great.
On a consolidated level it's important for us but it's really important for the team locally to start to see some early wins and also for our customers as well because it's still a very valuable category for them in Indonesia. More to come on that as we go through the second half of the year. Yes, sparkling leading it, tea still to come. Sanjeet would be the way I think about it. Very helpful.
Speaker 2
Thank you.
Speaker 1
Thank you. Our last question for today comes from the line of Carlos Alberto Laboy from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Speaker 0
Yes, hello. Thank you. Hi, Daniel. Can you expand on your or give us a view on your trade management outlook in Europe given where you are on your digital capabilities and the implementation of your digital capabilities? There's usually low hanging fruit there. Have you captured most of that already, you think, or is there a little bit more to go there? Thanks, Carlos. It's certainly an area that we're very passionate and excited about, and we've invested quite a bit in terms of our tech capabilities. I kind of look at it through two lenses. In the more organized segment, particularly in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, our myCCEP.com platform is managing and capturing a lot of value in terms of information, revenue, and also driving good customer engagement. We're on our way to a $3 billion revenue through that platform.
On a consolidated trade level, always more to do, but a great foundation. I think where we've been making the most progress is in fragmented. As you know, a lot of our markets in Europe, a lot of the away from home is fragmented, goes through wholesale, it goes through a more diverse route-to-market model, let's put it that way. Currently, we're at 70%+ of the revenue in that part of the trade that we get visibility on at an outlet level. That's a big improvement from a few years ago. We're overlaying that with our broader eB2B play in Spain, which mirrors some of the work you would have seen in Latin America and from Hellenic around a broader category platform for our distributors, which will allow them to digitize their route to market and allow us to get access to information.
As you know, typically the size of our partners in that part of the market, they don't have the balance sheet capability to build these platforms. I think we're bringing a tool that they need. It gives us transparency, and it will allow us to accelerate some of that market development capability in the fragmented trade, particularly in Europe. Clearly, it could have a bigger role in the Philippines and Indonesia, and that's certainly where we're going next. We'll continue the journey in Europe. We are already rolling out our myCCEP.com platform, and the next one will be that more fragmented trade tool. A lot has happened, but it's a super exciting part of the business. We'll continue to invest in it, and we'll continue to learn from other bottlers.
One of the benefits of where we are now as part of the Coke system is there's a lot of sharing going on, particularly in this space. We're definitely moving a bit faster thanks to kind of lifting and shifting some capabilities from elsewhere. Thank you.
Speaker 1
Thank you. Our last question comes from the line of Usama Tariq from ABN Amro, ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.
Speaker 0
Hi, good afternoon team. Thank you for the opportunity. I just have a quick question with regards to the comparable free cash flows. Correct me if I'm wrong, they're down year on year. Am I correct into assuming that this is more working capital related and then going into H2? I do understand that H2 is way stronger on a comparable basis, but do you see some risk there with regards to your comparable free cash flow guidance, especially if Indonesia remains weak.
Speaker 2
Thank you. Hi, thank you for the question. Yes, I mean our comparable free cash flow at the first half is slightly below last year, but that is really working capital related and is purely phasing. Actually, when you look at the calendar, the half ended a little bit earlier than last year, ended on the 27th of June, I believe. It is purely a phasing item. If you look at previous years, we always do more free cash flow in the second half of the year than the first half of the year, given the big summer selling period in Europe. As we sit here today, no, we're confident to reaffirm the guidance for the year. Indonesia is, as I said earlier, a small part of our business and not a heavy drain from a free cash flow perspective. We're confident in delivering at least €1.7 billion for 2025.
Speaker 1
All right, thank you. Thank you. I would now like to hand the conference back over to Damian Gammell for his closing remarks. Damian, please go ahead.
Speaker 0
Thank you, operator. Again, a big thank you to everybody for joining us today. We're really happy. We continue to execute on our growth strategy and are excited about the midterm outlook for CCEP. Very solid first half. I'm pleased that we reaffirmed our full year profit and free cash flow guidance today. Europe's return to growth in Q2, and we see a better performance in away from home. Indonesia is a bit slower. However, we continue to be excited and make the changes necessary to unlock what we believe is a great longer term opportunity for the group full year.
We expect volume growth in Europe and in APS despite Indonesia, and fundamentally we continue to generate a lot of value for our customers on the back of being a great business with very strong brands, solid route-to-market, and a very exciting commercial calendar between now and the end of the year. Again, thank you for joining us. We look forward to updating you on our Q3 in November. Thank you.
Speaker 1
That concludes our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.