The Coca-Cola Company, the world’s largest soft-drink maker, reported fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday
China volume grew 10% in the fourth quarter and 13% for the full year, making this nine of the last 10 years that our business there has delivered double-digit growth.
We saw strong growth across our entire sparkling portfolio, with Coca-Cola, Sprite and Fanta all delivering double-digit growth in both the fourth quarter and the full year, driven by a renewed focus on core brands, continued distribution gains and the expansion of cooler facings.
Importantly, we realized sparkling beverage volume and value share gains in both the quarter and the full year. Still beverages grew 8% in the quarter and 16% for the full year, driving share gains for the year in still beverages as Minute Maid Pulpy, Minute Maid Pulpy Super Milky value-added dairy and Ice Dew packaged water continued to perform well.
As our business and the industry in China continue to evolve, we are introducing a wider variety of packages to promote affordability and enhance the consumer experience with our brands, all with a focus to drive increased transactions and profitable growth and to continue building brand equity with consumers.
Our results this year confirm that we are executing the right strategies and have the right capabilities in place in China to deliver sustainable, double-digit growth over the long term.