William Malcolm

Coca-Cola HBC Česko a Slovensko Profit Drops Amid Pandemic

Last year, Coca-Cola HBC Česko a Slovensko fell by 89 percent year-on-year to CZK 40.3 million after the previous year’s CZK 366 million. The company’s net turnover decreased by 15.3 percent to CZK 6.8 billion in 2020 compared to the previous year, the company stated in the annual report published in the Collection of Documents. Last year was marked by the covid-19 pandemic when restaurants and similar establishments were closed.

Dan Timotin became the new director of the company last year. He was replaced by Maria Anargyra-Nikolic, who took over the management of the company in Greece and Cyprus. Despite the pandemic, the company last year started the construction of a new fully automated warehouse in the production area in Kyje, Prague, and will replace the distribution center in Prague – Horní Počernice. According to earlier information, the warehouse was to cost half a billion CZK.

“The company’s plans and priorities were significantly affected by the covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Immediately with its onset, strict security measures were introduced, in addition to government-imposed restrictions, to protect the health and safety of employees, customers, and consumers as much as possible. business decisions aimed at maintaining a business, “Timotin said in a report.

Company spokeswoman Patricia Šedivá has previously said that household consumption has increased, but has not caught up with the decline caused by the failure of the restaurant sector. Since 2017, the company has invested approximately two billion crowns in the Czech Republic. In recent years, for example, it has cost 650 million crowns to three lines, in Prague it started producing so-called plant drinks for Central Europe under the AdeZ brand and invested tens of millions of CZK in a syrup factory.

Coca-Cola has been operating on the Czech market since 1991, in Slovakia since 1993. The joint operating unit, which was established 11 years ago, belongs to the Coca-Cola Hellenic group operating in 28 countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In the previous regime, it was not a private company, it was produced by the national company Fruta Brno.

Last year, the company bought the bottled water producer Tom from Karlovy Vary Mineral Waters. This beverage group, which in the meantime was renamed Mattoni 1873 last year, saw sales fall by 2.7 percent year on year to CZK 15 billion, the company’s representatives said earlier. They did not state the total economic result. The EBITDA indicator, ie profit before interest, taxes, and depreciation, increased by 12.2 percent last year.

Another competitor, the Kofola Group, last year’s sales fell by 3.7 percent year on year to 6.17 billion crowns. According to preliminary economic results, the EBITDA indicator (operating profit before depreciation) decreased by eight percent to CZK 1.03 billion.