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LONDON (Alliance News) - Coca-Cola HBC AG on Friday reported growth in profit in 2015 as volumes increased in all of the markets in which it operates, but revenue continued to be hit by unfavourable movements in foreign exchange rates.
The soft drinks bottling company made a pretax profit of EUR357.1 million in 2015, up from EUR352.0 million in 2014, despite net sales revenue slipping to EUR6.35 billion from EUR6.51 billion.
Coca-Cola HBC said volume grew 2.6% in the full year, following a continuation of strong underlying trends into the fourth quarter, with volume growth in each of the established, developing and emerging markets categories.
Particularly good performances came from Italy and Greece in the established markets; Poland and Hungary in the developing markets; and Nigeria, Romania and Ukraine in the emerging markets.
However, a 5.1% adverse foreign exchange rate impact led to the fall in net sales revenue, Coca-Cola HBC said. Currency-neutral net sales revenue would have been up 0.3%.
The company will pay a dividend of EUR0.40 per share, which is an 11% increase on 2014.
"Conditions in Europe are slowly improving while countries with large oil exposure face ongoing difficult trading conditions. Going into 2016 we will continue to take action to address the challenges on a country by country basis. Overall we think the business is well placed to build further on both the volume growth and margin expansion achieved in 2015," Chief Executive Dimitris Lois said in a statement.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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