LONDON – Drinks bottler Coca-Cola HBC AG said it was “encouraged” by trading in its first quarter, with volumes rising 7.2 percent, helped by four extra selling days, the earlier timing of the Easter holiday and a good performance in Nigeria, Poland, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
The second largest bottler of the brands of the Coca-Cola Company said currency movements had a 5 percent adverse impact on net sales, resulting in 1.7 percent net sales revenue growth compared to a year ago.
Chief Executive Dimitris Lois said it was a “solid quarter”, after plans to stabilise volumes in Europe and to mitigate the adverse impact of currencies in some emerging markets were effective. (Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Sarah Young)(Reuters) [pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]