ATLANTA, Georgia: Coca-Cola officials have said that consumer demand could be slowed by rampant inflation, which shows no sign of cooling.
The company added that it was focusing on using more affordable and refillable glass bottles, as its markets ate facing the effects of price increases.
Despite price increases that resulted from higher costs for everything from aluminum cans to sugar, as well as labor and transportation, demand for sodas and other packaged foods has remained high.
However, Coca-Cola Chief Executive Officer James Quincey said the resilience in demand will not last forever.
On a call to analysts, Quincey said, “I do not expect price elasticities to be inelastic going forward. I expect elasticity to increase at some point in the future. Will that be next quarter? Or will that be next year? I cannot give you the answer to that.”
Earlier this month, Procter and Gamble said it expected demand for its feminine, home and oral care products in the U.S. to decline as summer price increases are seen on shop shelves.
Coca-Cola said it was expanding the distribution of les expensive returnable or refillable glass bottles in emerging markets in Latin America and Africa, in order to counter the expected decline in consumer purchasing power.
It is also experimenting with returnable bottles in the Southwest U.S.
In the first quarter of the year, Coke’s net revenue rose 16 percent to $10.5 billion, and its shares were up 1.6 percent.
Also, suspension of its operations in Russia would impact its annual profit by 4 cents per share and annual net revenue by about 1 to 2 percent, the company added.
