Coca-Cola sales volume up

Coca-Cola sales volume up

SYDNEY, Australia (AFX): Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd said three months to March sales volume was 238.0 million cases, up 6.1 percent year-on-year, due to strong contributions from its Indonesian and Australian operations.

Australia sales volume grew 6.7 percent, Oceania 5.9 percent, the Philippines 4.0 percent and Indonesia 26.9 percent but South Korea fell 3.0 percent.

Company managing director David Kennedy also said that in South Korea, while the company believes that at this time key economic indicators are satisfactory, there remains continuing uncertainty with regard to consumption trends and consumer purchasing behavior.

"In Australia, Oceania and Indonesia we expect to deliver improvements in volume, net sales revenue and trading profit for the full year 2001," Kennedy said.

About Indonesia, "there may be some reduction in the rate of growth later this year as we (go through the) cycle of the exceptional growth rate experience, coming out of the rapid recovery from 1998," he added.