CCA boosts 09 net profit

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STRONG performance from Coca- Cola Amatil (PNG) Ltd with Australia and Indonesia saw the beverage group’s net profit jumped 11% to A$449 million (K1.099 billion) for 2009.
The net profit after tax was 16.4% higher than the previous year, or up 11% when the impact of one-off costs booked in 2008 were stripped out.
The Australian reported that revenue jumped 8.2% to A$3.894 billion based on rises in both volume, which was up 3.9% to 555.1 million cases, and revenue per case, up 4.1% to A$7.07 (K17).
Coca-Cola managing director Terry Davis said the result was a strong performance given the challenging trading conditions of 2009.
The Australian beverage business, the company’s largest operating division, increased pre-tax earnings by 9.5% to A$550 million (K1.346 billion) on the back of 3.3% growth in sales by volume driven by new products. “While we experienced some trading-down in the first half in high-end restaurants and cafes, this was offset by improved product mix and increased demand in quick-service restaurants and supermarkets for at-home consumption,” Davis said.
The company has declined to make any profit forecasts for 2010, but  Davis was upbeat on the earnings outlook.“I expect that 2010 will be another year of good growth for CCA, given the staple nature of our beverage portfolio and the strong market position that we hold in each country,” he said.“Our medium to long-term goal is to consistently deliver high-single-digit earnings growth, and I believe that we can again achieve that for the first half,” he said.
He signalled that acquisitions were off the agenda for the coming year, saying there were “uncertainties in the external environment, so I expect that our focus will again be primarily around organic growth for 2010”.