SALES of Coke bottler Coca-Cola Amatil have lost fizz after rival Schweppes slashed prices and a wet summer dampened demand.
It also sees pain from an anti-binge drinking campaign.
However shares in the Sydney-based bottler, which is 29.59 per cent-owned by the giant US Coca-Cola Company, rose on Thursday, May 15, on relief that it kept its full-year outlook roughly in line with market forecasts.
It closed up 45c, or 5.7 per cent, at $8.40.
A move by the Federal Government this week to raise the tax on ready-to-drink alcoholic spirits in a bid to curb binge drinking among young women has also weighed on the group`s share price.
Coca-Cola Amatil last year started manufacturing ready to drink (RTD) alcoholic beverages Jim Beam and Cola, and Jim Beam and Zero Sugar Cola at its Adelaide operations.
It is building a new can production line at its Richlands operation in Brisbane, which will produce Jim Beam and Cola RTD alcoholic beverages.
Coca-Cola Amatil managing director Terry Davis said the 70 per cent lift in excise on RTD drinks _ bringing them into line with unmixed spirits and closing a 2000 GST loophole _ could cause a 5 to 10 per cent cut in sales of those drinks.
There also had been concern it could be badly wounded by steep discounting from British-based Cadbury Schweppes, Pepsi`s bottler, and by pressures on consumer spending from rising living costs and borrowing costs.
However the company said its first-half and full-year net profit should rise by a high single-digit percentage, roughly in line with market expectations.
It said that for the first four months of this year, trading was hurt by weaker sales volume, partly due to bad weather in its peak demand summer season.
Schweppes` steep grocery-channel price cuts also didn`t help as it widened the price gap with Coke.
Despite weak volumes in January and February, Coca-Cola Amatil said its "strong revenue management initiatives" meant revenue for the first six months had recovered and would be in line with the corresponding period a year earlier.
