Coca-Cola has warned its turnover in the second quarter may be hit hard by the corona crisis. Its sales in April have gone down by a quarter.
Lockdown
As can be expected, the sales drop is especially significant in the out-of-home segment: sales in places like pubs and restaurants usually make up almost half of Coca-Cola’s turnover. However, the lockdown has reduced sales volumes in April by almost 25 %.
The American FMCG giant’s results were looking promising pre-corona, with a volume growth of 3 % up to the end of February (excluding China). As more and more countries started engaging in some form of lockdown in March, sales were hit directly. In its first quarter, the turnover drop was limited to 1 % (to 8.6 billion dollars or 7.9 billion euros.
It is still unclear how big the financial impact will be on the second quarter results and the remainder of the year, Coca-Cola reports. Final results will, of course, heavily depend on how long corona measures remain in place and on how fast the economy will regain speed.
