Coca Cola Europacific Partners : Transcript (fb4948)

Published: 2026-04-28 09:19:12 ET CCEP

Published on 04/28/2026 at 09:19 am EDT

Q1 2026 Trading Update Analyst Call Transcript 28 April 2026

CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS OF PREPARED REMARKS

Damian Gammell - CEO Ed Walker - CFO

Sarah Willett - VP, Investor Relations & Corporate Strategy PREPARED REMARKS

Sarah Willett: Introduction

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 will contain 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 UK, U.S., Dutch, and Spanish authorities. A copy of this information is available on our website at https://www.cocacolaep.com. Prepared remarks will be made by Damian. We will then turn the call over to your questions.

Unless otherwise stated, metrics presented today will be on a comparable and FX neutral basis throughout. Volume movements, unless otherwise stated, adjust for the impact of six more consumption days in this quarter when compared to the same period last year.

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.

Damian Gammell: Prepared remarks

Thank you Sarah, and many thanks to everyone joining us today.

Firstly, I would like to thank our colleagues for their hard work and dedication to this great business, which next month celebrates its 10th birthday!

It's been a good start to the year with CCEP continuing to lead the way in FMCG in creating value for our customers across our markets and in innovative and growing categories, where we are gaining share. While Q1 is typically our smallest quarter, we have delivered broadly in line with expectations and today we are reaffirming our guidance for FY26.

Topline growth in the quarter has seen revenue continuing to benefit from the positive mix drivers we saw last year, driven by areas such as more coolers and the growth in Monster. We also delivered solid comparable volume growth, beyond the benefit of a slightly earlier Easter.

The category remains really attractive for our consumers and customers and remains as competitive as ever. Price relevance across all occasions remains key with value continuing to play a role for shoppers in our developed markets. And in our emerging markets we continue to focus on entry level affordability to build the category for the long-term.

So, as we did last year, we continue to build our total beverage offering, leveraging our diverse brand and pack range and our capabilities in revenue and margin growth management. This of course goes beyond pricing as we continue to balance premiumisation with affordability. We know that value is playing a role for a lot of consumers, but we also know they love innovation and excitement. As the category leader, we take the role of bringing this to the consumer - more taste innovation with new flavours, more pack innovation and more promotional innovation increasing leveraging AI, which I will come onto next, with more win mechanics and value add.

All of this has supported positive share gains in Europe. This has been driven by strong growth in zeros, in colas, flavours, sports and in energy.

We've also seen a sequential volume improvement in APS, supported by share gains in Australia, more normalised volumes in the Philippines and continued encouraging signs in Indonesia.

Volumes in Europe grew by 1.4% on a comparable basis, primarily driven by growth in Germany & GB, particularly in the Home channel, where we

typically see more Easter-related spending and typically in larger future consumption packs.

This was reflected in our revenue per unit case growth, alongside those positive mix benefits I mentioned just now, which I am really really pleased with.

We grew APS volumes by 1.9% on a comparable basis, driven by the Philippines, double-digit growth in the Pacific Islands & PNG, & further improvement in Indonesia driven by Sparkling supported by a solid Ramadan festive period.

Our revenue per unit case reflected the headwind from the Suntory alcohol exit which had just over a 3% impact on APS revenues and 1% at a Group level.

Fantastic in-market execution has supported a strong start for new innovations across our markets, which in Q1, have been largely focused around Coca-Cola Trademark. As I said before, bolder moves on Coke are the name of the game and we are seeing the benefits.

Strong distribution of the nostalgic Coke Cherry Float in GB is supporting the rollout of Cherry more broadly, with the excellent Devil Wears Prada movie sequel campaign supporting recent improvements in Diet Coke.

We've seen a great start for the new Coke 500ml Supercan, or SuperFAN can as it's known in GB. We are also relaunching zero caffeine, now much more in eye-catching black & gold packaging, supported by a partnership with the newly released '007' First Light video game.

In ARTD we've added to our growing alcohol portfolio with the additions of Bacardi Spiced with Coke and the recent launch of Absolut Vodka & Sprite Pineapple.

Monster more broadly has continued to motor from where it left off last year, with volumes up by 20% or more, in many of our largest markets, supported by new launches and strong growth of core variants like Ultra White. There have been multiple Monster launches during the quarter including Rehab, a line-up of tea-based stills, & the latest Juiced variant, Viking Berry.

This variant has been the strongest energy release to date in for example, GB, our largest energy market, where it's already outperformed last year's launches of both Rio Punch & Lando!

Q1 saw further progress in Away from Home, with some great customer wins in QSR. These include the American themed and fast growing Chilis casual dining chain in the Philippines & the largest holiday park operator in GB, Parkdean, boasting 66 sites and attracting 3 million visitors annually.

We've also made great progress around placing even more coolers, with a particular focus on convenience & Food to Go outlets, supporting immediate consumption - for, as we know, 'what's cold is sold'! So far this year, we've already added around 40k more Coke & Monster coolers with more to come - for example, we will be adding up to 1,000 in Co-op convenience stores, a great win for our team.

Looking out to the rest of the year, much of our planned pricing is now in-market, we have solid commercial programmes in place with plenty more innovation and excitement to come.

For example, in Flavours, new Sprite Chill Zero will soon be available across our markets, together with the latest burst of the Fanta Wanta campaign, with a new Gen-Z focused gaming tie-up with Xbox. We've more Fuze Tea flavours to come in Europe, an expansion of Lift in the Philippines, and more in Energy across the Monster portfolio. And of course, as an avid football fan, June sees the start of the FIFA World Cup, which will see us front and centre with colourful & exciting in-store activations & consumer promotions, particularly around Coke & Powerade.

So, all in all, lots to look forward to, to excite both our customers and consumers.

More broadly, the macro-economic environment is increasingly uncertain, particularly given the situation in the Middle East. We are resilient and have a robust operating model, so while input prices have been affected, we are able to manage the impact. Our highly hedged commodities position, now at around 85%, ongoing efficiency programmes and control of discretionary spend, give us good visibility on costs for the year. Our planning has been based on temporary market disruption and whilst we aren't currently seeing

any material impact on consumers, we're monitoring the situation closely and will adapt our plans accordingly should things change.

We're continuing to invest in our business. In coolers as I mentioned, in our supply chain, with our new megaplant outside Manila on track to begin production at the start of '27 & also in our digital capabilities. As an example, we recently launched Kira, a newly developed natural language chat interface for our insights teams, helping them analyse complex & diverse data to drive deeper understanding of our brands & markets & power swifter decision making as a result.

As I mentioned earlier, we have reiterated our guidance for FY26. As a reminder that is for between 3 and 4% revenue growth, around 7% operating profit, & comparable free cash flow of at least €1.7 billion which will be H2 weighted as usual.

Today's dividend declaration and our continuing share buyback programme demonstrate the strength of our business & our ability to deliver continued shareholder value.

Just before we take your questions a reminder of our sustainability webinar on Thursday, which will provide details & progress on our This is Forward targets, which we have now been updated to include the Philippines.

Thank you for your time today - Ed and I will now be happy very to take your questions. Over to you, operator.

Disclaimer

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners plc published this content on April 28, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on April 28, 2026 at 13:18 UTC.