CAGNY: Coca-Cola Targets ‘Boundless Opportunity’ for Global Growth
The overarching theme of The Coca-Cola Co.’s Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) presentation on Feb. 18, 2025, revolved around taking advantage of the “boundless opportunity” in the global marketplace, focusing on continuing to execute at a high level and build enduring value for its brands and business.
Chairman and CEO James Quincey opened the talk by highlighting the immense opportunity Coca-Cola’s brands have around the world, having pulled in 14% market share in developed markets and 7% in developing and emerging markets. Quincey noted this as a “massive opportunity ahead of us” to capture an untapped marketplace — and added that the entire beverage industry could stand to benefit. Coca-Cola is also working to attract more customers and increase purchases in current fans of the brands.
For 2025, Quincey noted the company expects 5-6% organic revenue growth and 2-3% comparable EPS growth, building off 12% and 7% growth respectively in those areas in 2024. The company saw a minor uptick of 1% volume growth in 2024.
The company now houses 30 “Billion Dollar Brands” and has benefitted from the sparkling beverage renaissance — which has been underway since 2019 and continues climbing today. Quincey added that the company sees plenty of growth potential in flavors versus colas moving forward and believes the portfolio positions it well to take advantage.
Coca-Cola’s non-sparkling beverage brands have been big winners over the past decade, Quincey said. Still brands nearly doubled their retail value in that time, and The Coca-Cola Co. reports it is the No. 1 global player in the water category as well as the juice category, and it owns Powerade, which is the No. 1 sports drink brand outside the U.S.
Quincey also made a point to highlight the growth of the Fairlife brand, which went from about $10 million retail value in 2014 to roughly $4 billion today. The company feels confident about its ability to grow its other brands due to these successes, and Quincey admitted that it has work to do in the coffee category as well as some others.
The company is nearing the final stages of its global refranchising transformation, with only a few company-owned bottlers remaining in the system.
Worth noting, Quincey discussed the company’s global marketing transformation as a key driver, and later in the presentation, John Murphy, president and CFO, said that the company’s work with generative AI was starting to prove beneficial. Murphy said the company believes it’s important to stay grounded in today’s opportunity for use of artificial intelligence, and not get ahead of yourself by looking at what it could do years from now.
He then mentioned the company’s Christmas 2024 campaign, which fully utilized AI to create a commercial that had, let’s say, mixed reviews in the marketplace when it first hit the airwaves. Murphy called it a creative solution that was well-received.
