Coca-Cola HBC AG
Ukraine and Russia conflict update
Zug, Switzerland – 3 March 2022 – Coca-Cola HBC today provides an update in relation to the situation in Ukraine.
The safety of our employees is our highest priority. We remain in constant contact with our people in Ukraine and Russia and are doing everything we can to support them.
We temporarily stopped production at our plant in Kyiv on the 24th of February and evacuated our employees.
With the release of our full year 2021 results announcement on 22nd February, Coca-Cola HBC set guidance for the year in a wide range that considered geopolitical risks, as well as headwinds from commodities and currencies. However, in the last week the situation involving Ukraine and Russia has clearly developed further and faster than anticipated.
It is still too early to quantify the impact that the evolving geopolitical crisis and many governments' developing reactions to it will have on our business or on our full year 2022 results. Given that we generated c. 20% of 2021 volumes and EBIT from both regions, combined with the uncertainty of the duration and economic impact, we no longer believe that it is prudent to provide guidance for our group's current financial year.
We continue to execute well in every area where we have control and will focus on factors that can mitigate the negative headwinds. We are prepared to utilise revenue growth management actions, including pricing, to offset currency depreciation and higher input costs. We are also ready to redeploy marketing spend and capex investment to other markets. Operating expense management is embedded in our business and will continue to be a key element of our plans for the year.
We will update accordingly when we have greater visibility on the impact of the events in the Ukraine and Russia on our business.