Coca-Cola Europacific Partners PLC (NASDAQ:CCEP) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Lauren Lieberman: Okay. So just I guess a clarifying on API fourth quarter, ex the SKU rationalization, give a sense for what volumes would have looked like? And then in terms of looking forward, definitely saw the great comment in the press release about current trading conditions. I guess there’s a view that Europe escaped the worst because it was a warm weather, warm weather winter, so less pressure on European consumers broadly in terms of what their wallet needed to cover, but a concern that sort of the realities of inflation are still kind of yet to — but that’s still yet to really materialize in terms of consumer behavior. So how are you thinking about that? I know right now, things seem fine. And I’m just curious on your view of the European consumer as we move forward?

Damian Gammell: Yes. So back to your question on API, I think if you look at it, the average of the year would have been pretty much where Q4 would have come in, but we’re not going to give specifics around the value of the SKU rationalization. But — and if you look at our Australia and New Zealand businesses maintained single-digit growth in those periods. So nothing beyond really what happened in our Indonesian SKU decision. On European consumer, we continue to be mindful of the challenges they’re facing. So I think you’ve outlined quite nicely what we’re continuously looking at in terms of the impact of inflation under spending. We haven’t seen that impact our category yet. We clearly have something we’re mindful of. It’s reflected in our pricing strategy for ’23.

It’s reflected in our promo strategy. We continue to earn the right to price, I think, is our model that whether it’s through innovation or marketing that we’ve got to justify to all our consumers if they need to pay more for our brand. So we’re very mindful of it. We haven’t seen it yet. We’ve clearly seen some retailers repositioned and focus on their own brands. That’s clearly something that we’ve seen in the second half of ’22. I believe that will continue into ’23. And that’s on the back of those challenges that you’ve outlined. But so far, we see a very solid consumer. We recruited a lot of new households last year. But yes, I suppose we’re still mindful that some of those challenges haven’t gone away. And we’re making sure that when we do take decisions around price and promo that we do so with that context.

And then we’ll see where we go as we come into the summer. It’s been a good winter and relatively speaking. And obviously, spring it on its way in Europe. So let’s see what that brings.

Operator: We will take our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Sanjeet Aujla from Crédit Suisse.

Sanjeet Aujla: Nik, Damian. Just coming back to the 6% to 8% organic revenue guide, I think at the Capital Markets Day, you outlined an expectation for the category to grow high single digit in value, mainly driven by pricing. So just against that context, are you embedding in any volume declines in your 6% to 8% outlook for ’23?

Nik Jhangiani: No, we’re not. I mean, again, we’ve given you a range there for a specific reason. It’s early in the year, but we actually do expect volume to grow. And I think, as I also highlighted, we want to at least maintain, if not grow our share as well. So our focus is on getting that right balance between the 2 elements that might be a little different in terms of shape versus what you saw in 2023. And part of that goes back to some of those pricing comments that Damian made earlier in terms of what we did in 2022 that has that carry-on impact, what we’ve already landed and then obviously, what’s to come during 2023 as well. So that’s the way we’ve looked at it. So just to be clear, we are looking at volume growth as well on the back of obviously very strong 9% volume growth in 2022.

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