Coca-Cola HBC is trying to claw its way back to achieving the sort of margins of about 11 per cent that it enjoyed before the financial crisis, but it is turning out to be a slow process.
The company bottles and sells Coke in 28 countries. It is among the less visible members of the FTSE 100 and is originally Greek (the HBC stands for Hellenic Bottling Company). With so many territories to trade in, some obviously are doing better than others. About 45 per cent of its business comes from Russia, Nigeria and Italy, the first two being difficult markets at present.
The 2015 figures showed further improvement, although they were largely in line with market expectations. Strictly comparable earnings were ahead by 11