Delighted to welcome Damian Gammell, the CEO of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, the world's largest Coca-Cola bottler, hot on the heels.
Thanks, Charlie, for putting me on after James. I don't know what I did to upset you, but, yeah. How do I follow that? So anyway, I'll do my best. I'll do my best.
We've got a nice slide here that very nicely encapsulates just the enormous transformation that's, again, happened at CCEP, where over the last five highly disruptive years, not only have you averaged 5% organic sales growth with 1% volume, but you also found the time to pull off the Amatil transaction and then the Philippines. So I think, as this slide shows, it's now a very different diversified business, both geographically, channel mix, which offers faster long-term growth. But does it also come with more volatility, or is it more resilient, do you think, than the past?
Probably a combination of both. I think we're definitely more resilient because we're more diverse. We've grown into a business that was predominantly Western European, which is a fantastic place to be in the beverage industry, and expanded into markets that have a different growth profile. So from that perspective, we've opened CCEP up to a higher top-line growth. Obviously, when you get growth in some markets, you do have to live with a degree of volatility. But I think when you look at the shape of the business now, whether it's by brand, by geography, by pack, by country, by channel, it's so diverse that we get resilience.
You know, so we can have an up and down summer or period in one location, but consistently achieve that top-line growth, which we've, you know, guided to 4%, and so far beating it, so that's good.
Yeah. I don't know if it says it on the slide, but you're now an organization of 42,000 people, up from 24,000 a few years ago, with some just incredible talent added. For example, New Zealand won the Candler Cup, the world's best bottler in 2020. How do you think about sharing this great knowledge across CCEP to maximize the benefits from a top and bottom line perspective?
Yeah, obviously, being part of the... I mean, James laid it out. I mean, we're part of the system. So even with other bottlers, we share lots of ideas, right? So, I mean, we have lots of global meetings every year where we get together with Hellenic or CCI or U.S. bottlers or Latin America. So there's always been a culture of sharing within the Coca-Cola business, and I think that's one of the strengths, and it's very competitive. So James talked about discontent. You wanna be in a meeting where there's lots of bottlers in the room. It can get pretty ugly, in a nice way. So we're super competitive, and I think that forces that sharing because people really are, to James's point, curious, but they wanna win.
So from a system perspective, we kind of came in in a good place. You know, clearly internally, moving to different time zones, having a more longer flights to my market visits, so there's some complexities. But ultimately, you know, what we found, particularly with Amatil, was when we bought a business, all of our colleagues, they just wanted to be part of a bigger bottler that was committed to the long term, believed in the business, believed in the brands. And we were very fortunate, we kind of unlocked all of that optimism through the transaction. And, you know, and I think that's the great thing about the Coke business. People join for the brand, and they stay for the people.
So it is a bit more complex, but ultimately, it's super exciting to have markets like the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Pacific Islands. I enjoy my market visits in London and Paris. Papua New Guinea is just a bit more interesting when you get there. It's not a bad problem.
You kind of answered it there. My follow-up was going to be, I remember in the depths of the pandemic, all the bottlers kind of came together, and I was just wondering, kind of after the pandemic, has that kind of increased collaboration and sharing? I mean, CCEP is renowned as a, you know, one of the best executors in the modern retail channel. Like, is there more sharing going on with the bottlers these days?
Yeah, I think, I mean, the good thing about the bottling business is every bottler thinks they're the best. And I think, you know, that level of competitiveness for more franchise territories, you know, to be a bigger part of the Coke system, that drives that sense of stealing, learning, copying, and that continues. I mean, we do it throughout the P and L from a procurement perspective to our global procurement network, so we maintain, you know, really competitive purchasing power. I think the area that we're now doing it more that we didn't do enough of is on digital and technology. So I see a lot more conversations now around how do we share more data, insights, what other bottlers are doing on platforms, frontline sales tools.
So probably that's the area that I think we're spending more time on now. When we get together, we generally talk a lot more about technology capability, digital, than we did previously. So that's probably the focus at the moment.
Perhaps just on that topic of digital, we obviously hear a lot about RGM, and you've even gone further with the revenue margin and growth management. Can you just talk about the runway there, but then also the other side of digital that maybe we speak a bit less about, such as, you know, digitizing the production facilities, the finance function, the areas there that you see that can, again, help you drive stronger top-line growth and reduce volatility?
Yeah. Yeah, so we, we've. You know, we came under a little bit of pressure on our gross margin through Covid. Our business moved more to retail and at that time, we kind of recognized that we needed to make more money and make more margin in retail. And that's why we changed from revenue growth management to revenue and margin growth management, 'cause you can't really separate both of those. And that's been a key enabler of our growth, and I think it's really important today because, you know, there's lots of consumers that need support to enjoy our brands. So being able to manage pricing and packaging at a level that you don't lose consumers or shoppers, and you've seen that across other categories where private label or retailer brands have made big inroads. That hasn't happened in our category.
And that's really down to being very choiceful around what pack, at what price, and what location. And obviously, all the technology and data insights that help us make that decision are really, really important. So there's still a long way to go. If you visit a supermarket in the U.K. today, we probably have about 200 SKUs. You know, you can buy a Coke today in the U.K. from GBP 0.50 up to GBP 12-14, and in between that, there's significant packaging that allows you to access either for the occasion or the price point you want, and that's really critical.
And if you go back to 2016, there was probably two packs that were 80% of our business, and now, as you see in that slide, we've spread it out much more, and that's all really driven by RGM. On the other side, you know, we've got 101 factories. We operate in over 30 countries. A lot of the people in our business are on our supply chain and front end, so there's a massive productivity opportunity. And, you know, we are in the middle of a very enjoyable journey moving to SAP S/4HANA. A fantastic event. If you haven't gone through it, I'd invite you to try it.
You know, as painful as it is, and somewhat expensive, it's the last piece of the puzzle for us to really finish our integration because we are operating today on really three different systems. We've got Western Europe, the old Amatil business, and now the Philippines. That journey will allow us to move everything onto one platform. You know, we've committed a productivity program of $350 million-$400 million of savings, and that's all coming from unlocking productivity on the back end of the business. Not the frontline sales, we're growing that, but really in our supply chain.
Excellent. And on the topic of kind of digital and data, as we just heard from James, you know, The Coca-Cola Company has a fantastic array of data. You've obviously got incredible levels of store-level data as well. How do you kind of marry these two data sets together to maximize the top-line revenue-generating possibility?
Yeah. I'd say we're getting better, but I think we're still at the beginning of that journey. I think we got distracted a little bit by probably a conversation you've all had about creating a data lake, and that kind of... A lot of people drown in that, to be honest. You focus on putting so much stuff in, and by the time you get it all in, you kind of go, "Well, why did we start this journey? And then, you know, what can we do with it?" So we've now kind of moved to more insights-driven, so particularly with Manolo and the marketing team around: What's the problem or opportunity we're trying to solve? And then what insight do we need to help us do that?
And then, based on that, then you can go and find the data you need to make the decision. And I think being much more choiceful through that lens allows you to go a lot quicker. It avoids massive cost and just putting everything into a central kind of repository that no one can figure out what to do with. But I'd say we're only at the beginning of that. I mean, we've got great customer insights, great consumer insights, so the combination is powerful. Yeah, so more to come. More to come on that, for sure.
Kind of on that theme, I asked James the question, so I'll ask you: How would you characterize your relationship alignment with The Coca-Cola Company? I mean, from the outside, it does feel like it's stepped up a level throughout the pandemic, and shareholders would've seen some of the tangible benefits of that, such as the Amatil deal and then the Philippines. But what are perhaps some of the less visible benefits of the enhanced alignment?
Yeah. I don't think it's good for my career if I give a different answer to James. So, I think James is great. He's amazing. So, no. So I mean, I think fundamentally, on top of what James alluded to in terms of the shareholder mindset, the long-term mindset, I think having been in the business quite a while, probably the biggest change is how our financial performance is now integrated. So we call it incidence pricing . I mean, it's basically that, you know, both value streams are linked to the best price we can get for the consumer. And I think that's fundamentally changed the system because it really put everybody in the same focus, which is really around quality, quality growth at the top line.
Prior to that, it was more volumetric, so you would see a lot more kind of lots of twenty-four-pack cans for a cheap price or lots of two-liter, and that led to that very narrow pack mix that I talked about earlier. You know, when the system moved to saying, "Listen, it's all about shared consumer value," that changed everything. And I think that is still probably one of the underpinning strengths of the business, is that despite that we'll have rows or we might kind of have a different opinion or, which is also a strength, 'cause it keeps both sides, I think, on top of their game. The fundamental creation of value in both companies is driven by the same metric.
Mm.
To me, having been in the business a long time, that's, you know, lots of things have changed, but that's probably the most significant one for me.
Excellent. And perhaps just on the theme of relationships, I wonder if we move on to your relationships with your customers and the joint value creation strategy where, for a number of years now, CCEP has been the largest value creator in Western Europe. I think you're now also the largest value creator in Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines, and I think you mentioned recently, your products are very profitable as well for retailers. So long story short, CCEP is great for retailers. What benefits does that confer to you and CCEP from kind of a pricing or a shelf space perspective?
Yeah, I mean, I think it's critical that you make money for your customers, right? So I think if, if they, if they make money and grow, it's always a, a better place to be. So we've when we set up CCEP in 2016, you know, I'd say the category in Western Europe was a bit unloved by our customers. Wasn't growing, you know, so it wasn't as attractive as we, we felt it should be. So we set a metric to be not just the number one in beverages, but the number one value creator in FMCG, so ahead of all of, all of the CPG. And I think that, you know, that, that's, that was a high bar, but it kind of transformed the way we, we thought about our category. So, you know, on that journey, a couple of things have happened.
One, the category is growing. Western Europe is growing, you know, every year. It's growing in volume as well, which I think is really important. It's not just revenue. We've taken pricing probably versus the market, where we probably priced at around 60%, so we were very choiceful coming out of COVID on, you know, how we managed that pricing in a segmented way. So we've been pricing behind the market 'cause we're very, very conscious around affordability and growing households and growing penetration. But most importantly, as we've taken pricing, our retailers have generally taken a little bit more. So if you go back over the last 10 years, retailer margins in our category have probably moved from mid-teens to mid-twenties. And I think, you know, that's important 'cause, one, you get relevance for your customers. You're a big part of their profit pool.
You're a big part of their growth. And as we come with more innovation, whether it's on brands or packaging, you're also a bigger part of the excitement that they want to bring to their shoppers or their consumers. So, critically important to grow the category, critically important to make your customers enjoy good margins, and then I think they're very open to, you know, whether it's new promotions, a new brand, more space in store. And I think if you walk around Western Europe now, you know, if you walk to the beverage category, historically, you would have seen juice, water, and soft drinks, probably an equal space. If you walk around today, you'll see soft drinks and energy in particular, and the other two categories, because they didn't grow, they didn't deliver margin, have been under huge pressure.
So it's something that we've got to keep doing, and it's probably something that's a hard task to beat every CPG every year on revenue.
Mm-hmm.
But it, it's a healthy one.
Excellent. And I want to move on to the consumer environment. I mean, we've got the first sunny day in the UK, it feels like this year. We've got a big summer of sport ahead, Germany currently, Paris Olympics, America's Cup. I mean, how are you feeling about the consumer at the moment and your portfolio and the ability to deliver growth, no matter the operating environment?
Yeah, I think it's robust. I think we see growth, particularly in retail. And I think that's because we've recognized a number of years ago, with high inflation, cost of living, energy, that making sure you provide value to consumers who need it is the right thing to do, and that's maintained that volume growth. So, you know, we see the consumer getting even stronger. We see our out-of-retail business, so we're quite different to other CPGs, as you can see in the chart. We've more revenue out of retail, so that gives us resilience, obviously margin benefits. So we see that side of the business probably was slower to catch up in volume, so revenues are ahead of twenty nineteen, volumes just catching up.
And then, on the back of, as you said, you know, Euros in Germany, it's great for us. Olympics in Paris, fantastic event. And if we get hopefully a reasonable summer, we'll see a lot more people out and about drinking our brands. So, yeah, we feel really good about the consumer, and I think it's getting better.
Perfect. And then I briefly want to revisit the pandemic, where effectively overnight, you know, the away-from-home channel, which at the time was about 43% of your sales, was just shut, and you had to completely pivot into the at-home channel. And then, just as we came out of that, we then obviously had, you know, soaring natural gas, supply chain issues, CO2 shortages. I mean, there's been kind of issues left, right, and center. How has this strengthened CCEP's supply chain over that time, and what have been some of the kind of the key learnings from that period?
I think one of the key learnings was that, you know, if you run a business the right way, when things like that happen, you know, you can get through it, and you can actually come out of it stronger. And I think that long-term investment mindset, I think particularly on the people side, so I mean, we've got really engaged workforce from our factories to our front line. So you really see the strength of your culture when that happens. And I think that helped us get through it collectively. We didn't lay anybody off. We didn't take any government funding. We supported our people. We didn't expect it to last that long, so we were all thinking it was six months.
But I think coming through it allowed us also to understand where our fixed costs really hurt us, and 'cause when you lose that much revenue-
Mm
... you see a lot that you don't see, right, normally. And I suppose that inspired us to be more aggressive on our fixed cost. That $350-$400 million productivity program, that's on top of $350 million we've already done. And then it also really demonstrated where we make money. You could really see where you could generate margin and profit, and that forced us to make decisions around getting out of bulk water, you know, sunsetting some of our juice brands and businesses. You know, when we bought the Amatil business, we exited beer, cider, because we saw through that pressure really where we could make sustainable returns. Yeah, and I think that, you know, that's playing to our strengths today.
Are you seeing any kind of lasting or lingering impacts from the pandemic in terms of your channel mix? Like, for example, we hear a lot in the U.K. now about how ten pubs a week are closing, and, you know, during the pandemic, we all drank more at home. Have you seen any structural changes there in any of your markets?
I think people, our consumers, you know. I remember having a conversation with James, you know, I think what happened in that period, a lot of people got used to having Coke back in the fridge at home, or Fanta or Sprite, and that habit hasn't gone away. So we are seeing a very robust retail business, where people got used to enjoying our brands at home, cooking, barbecuing, whatever. That has remained. So that behavior has stuck, so our retail business has been really, really solid. Away from home, as I said, it's ahead in revenue, but it's behind in volume. And that's just, you know, I think people, you know, if you're in London on a Monday or a Friday, it's just very quiet. People are enjoying the flexibility of working at home, so they're eating more at home.
So one thing that kind of came out of the pandemic was our margin structure in our home business caught up with our away-from-home. And that's really important. So if people are enjoying a Coke at home or in a Pret A Manger or in a bar, from a profit margin perspective, we're fine. We're very happy once they're enjoying a Coke. So I'd expect volumes in away from home will catch up probably this year, but it's been a slow return, but retail has remained very strong.
Perfect. We'll try and help with those volumes in the away-from-home channel. And moving on to the portfolio, so 85% of CCEP's volumes are in the sparkling category, and there's been a massive transformation there from James, the team at the Coca-Cola Company, splitting the responsibility into the reformulations, et cetera. What have been some of the most material changes for your business from that, and how have they benefited you?
So I think nothing beats taste in beverages. That's an obvious thing to say, but a lot of people take it for granted. I think the company's done a really good job on the taste profile of our sugar-free variants.
Mm-hmm.
If you look at our growth, we're now 50%, more or less, sugar-free. I think, you know, we're now providing, particularly on brands like Fanta and Sprite, a fantastic taste experience with no sugar. That, that's been a big enabler on our portfolio, and it's on our core business where we generate a lot of profit and a lot of growth. Obviously, we're now looking at categories like ARTD.
Mm-hmm.
We were fortunate when we bought Amatil, that we inherited a business that had a big ARTD portfolio with Beam Suntory. So at the time, we'd no experience in that category. They'd been in it for sixteen years, so that opened our eyes to, you know, the profit of that business, or that category and its growth profile. So that, you know, that's something we're excited about in Europe. We've launched Jack Daniel's and Coke in the UK. We're launching Absolut and Sprite, and there's more to come. So that's a very different category, very close to what we do in terms of supply chain and customers-
Mm-hmm.
... but a very different consumer, so mainly sourcing from beer and other alcohol. So I think our energy business continues to do really well. It's a very dynamic category. We've a good tea business in Europe. And, you know, James talked about it. We're really excited about coffee, but we haven't cracked the code yet, so some more to be done there. But yeah, lot's happening across the portfolio.
Maybe just a follow-on on the kind of the energy drinks side of things. Obviously, you've had incredible growth, volume-driven as well, mid-teens over the last few years. Just how much further is there to go with the, the energy drinks portfolio? And maybe can you just touch on, I think we're launching Reign Storm-
Yeah
... shortly. Your views on that as a-
I think we, you know, we continue to look at the U.S. and see what's happening in the energy category, which is from a per cap and innovation, kind of leading the charge. So we've seen Celsius do well, so similar type of product for Europe with Reign Storm, so we'll launch that. I mean, the category is very dynamic, and I think, you know, it's all single serve, so it's very little promotional pack, so it's all high-priced. Very innovation-driven, right? So when you look at the energy portfolio today, you know, massive amount of flavor, innovation, sugar-frees come in, and they, they're probably more recent compared to our core soft drinks, right? So I see that growth certainly in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, in that mid-teens for the next four or five years.
Mm-hmm.
On the back of that innovation, it's definitely playing to a consumer need state, and it's extremely profitable for us and our customers, so that helps.
Perfect. And then, on the other side of the coin, CCEP over the past five years has been doing a lot of brand trimming, a 60% SKU cut in Indonesia, bulk water in markets like Australia, Germany, Spain. Can you maybe just talk about how do you think about balancing, kind of trimming the portfolio, to optimize growth with The Coca-Cola Company's overarching total beverage company ambition? And then the second part of that question is, with things coming off the shelves, what have you been putting back on the shelves to get the double benefit of enhanced growth?
Yeah, so I mean, I think to grow the top line in a sustainable way, you have to get rid of the products that are, you know, taking up space for your customers, for you, your sales force, that you don't see a sustainable value journey. And so, like, easy decisions for us were bulk water. You know, not a great use of water, which is a very valuable resource. We got out of beer, cider, you know, full beverage spirits, where it's not what we do, and the margin structure wasn't great. I think that then creates space, and then I think the conversations we have with The Coca-Cola Company is, like, what goes into that space? And for us in Europe, it's Fuze Tea is doing really well.
You'll see a lot more focus on Powerade. The sports category is a great category. It hasn't really been given a lot of attention from us, honestly, in Europe. Despite that, it's still a great category and a great brand, but if you go to Australia, New Zealand, you'll see a massive sports category, or in the US, and the consumer's different, but the need is the same, so Powerade's going in there, Fuze Tea's going in there. You know, clearly innovation on our core, particularly flavors on Cola, so you know, when you look at that growth algorithm, getting rid of the low-value, distracting brands just opens up space and resource, and that's an iterative process. Every year, every six months, we'll review our SKUs, and then we look at what's coming down the line.
And then basically that comes out, and then something else comes in.
Mm-hmm.
Um, yeah.
Perhaps just linking onto that, maybe we could just pivot a bit to Indonesia, where obviously some big SKU trims, and I think also optimizing the cost base. Are you confident now that you have the right platform in sparkling, ready-to-drink tea to really take Indonesia to the next level?
I'm very confident on sparkling. I think the work we've done on our packaging mix, so affordability is key in Indonesia. So you've gotta hit that price point, so you've gotta be at IDR 4,000. We're now at that with a 250 ml. On our sparkling business, we were in 1.5-liter at IDR 15,000, which was too expensive. We're now 1 liter. And we've also brought Zeros to Indonesia. And in some of our customers, Zeros are 30% of our mix, and we never expected that to be successful. So on our core sparkling portfolio, I think we're in great shape. And it goes back to, you know, Fanta, Sprite Zero in particular, great tasting. We're still working on our tea proposition. We've got the right price point. We think we can get a better product.
We're actually looking at some tea propositions out of Latin America that we feel could just further improve the consumer experience. And that's probably the next journey in Indonesia in our portfolio, and we hope to get that landed this year. And then I think from a pack, price, product perspective, we're in great shape, and then it's really about execution and building that brand love. Yeah. So sparkling, great. Tea, a little bit more work.
Interesting. And then maybe just pivoting slightly overseas into the Philippines, your newest market. I mean, what attracted you about the Philippines market in particular? And I guess the second part is, like, what can you and your partner in the business, AEV, bring to the Philippines?
I think maybe start with the second part first. I mean, I think we bring that long-term commitment.
Mm-hmm.
A really healthy balance sheet, so we can invest in that business for growth. And I think certainly to the employees, that they're, you know, they're part of the world's biggest bottler, and we're, you know, that long-term focus. I think our partners bring local insight. You know, local connectivity. Also really welcomed by our employees because obviously our partner's got a great reputation in the Philippines. And it's a very dynamic and diverse market, so having someone there that you can connect with and discuss opportunities, challenges with, for us, has been really beneficial. So, great partner and a great relationship. What attracted us is, I mean, it's the best business in Asia for the Coca-Cola system. It's quite unique. It's the first market outside of the U.S. to have Coke, so it's over one hundred and ten years old.
It's a sparkling culture, so when you go there, they love sparkling soft drinks. They love brand Coke. It's big. It's got big per capitas. It's profitable. It can be more profitable, so that's what attracted us, and I think it's got a legacy and an infrastructure. For me, I always looked at it as being a market like Spain or Mexico or Turkey, that's just one of those global Coke-
Mm
... markets. Yeah, and obviously, we felt it would be a great addition to our Indonesian investment, so we could learn a lot from the Philippines. Its per capitas are dramatically higher. Yeah, so very fortunate and grateful that we could get that opportunity.
I think probably by the end of this year, the company would've delevered back down to its kind of two and a half, three times net debt/EBITDA range. Could you perhaps just talk about your appetite for further territory M&A, and absent any M&A, what that could entail?
It's good James is in the room when you ask me that question. So yeah, no. So we're about a year ahead of our deleveraging, so we're really happy that we get back to that 2.5-3. Yeah, I mean, we love the Coke bottling business. That's kind of what we do. So getting more territories is always on our mind. Be crazy not to be when you look at the value creation for our shareholders when we do that. I also think we create more value for the Coke Company in terms of different top-line growth and alignment. So we'll keep looking. I've said to a few investors, it's a bit like the Monopoly board, though, so...
You know, there's pretty much houses and hotels everywhere now, so there's not a lot left to, you know, put your marker on. So we'll keep looking. Absent that, obviously, we'll look at our capital allocation plan end of year, probably in September, with our board, and then make some decisions on what we do with that, so. But clearly, our first priority would be to add to the family, but recognizing there's probably a lot less than there was five or six years ago, we'll consider, you know, other uses. We have taken our capital guidance up to 5% of net revenue, 'cause we think investing more in our existing business is the right thing to do. So some of that excess cash will go back into capital, but that again fuels that long-term growth ambition.
Fair, fair. And then I think the last one from me, and then maybe we'll open up to some Q&A around the floor. But kind of a similar question to what I asked James. I mean, since you've been CEO of CCEP, what have been perhaps some of your proudest accomplishments, and what do you think investors should take away as perhaps the biggest opportunity going forwards?
I think the biggest opportunity is growth and profitable growth. When you look at our categories growing, our market share position within the category, pipeline of innovation, obviously, we've got, you know, very good share positions in our markets that give us value creation. There's a lot of reasons numerically, I think, to really enjoy the business and enjoy investing in the company. I think the biggest kind of change when I look back, when I came back to Western Europe in 2016, and I think, you know, what I'm most happy with is the culture. There's a culture of growth, there's a culture of competitiveness, positivity. We're making more money for our customers, we're making more money for our shareholders, we're growing, we're innovating.
So for me, that's the most important. So I know for investors that that doesn't appear in a fact sheet. Eventually, it does, one way or another. But if you meet our people or you meet our customers, I think that's the biggest change. It's just a much more positive growth mindset business. And obviously, as a CEO, it's a lot happier place to work.
Mm.
So you see a lot more smiles, and that just makes everything easier.
Fair, fair. Do we have a mic going around with any questions? If not, I can definitely carry on.
Oh.
Oh, we've got one over there from Chris.
Thank you. It was alluded to earlier, but the Coca-Cola system is moving towards total beverage. In terms of the role of alcohol within your portfolio, Brown-Forman called out how brilliantly executed Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola have been in the Philippines. You mentioned that you'd got out of beer. I'm just trying to understand perhaps the Coca-Cola system's view towards alcohol as an incremental volume and profit driver.
Yeah, I think our forays into alcohol previously were mainly through licensing of brands out of Australia, so low margin, high expectation from the brand owner, and a huge distraction. So very, very different business. Ready-to-drink is brand partnership, so it's a different platform. I think when you see Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola on the can, just looks really cool, and a different margin structure. So I think for us, getting into that space in alcohol is very near to us in terms of capability, and even things like supply chain, canning lines, so some of the basics of our business, and it's generally the same customers.
So when you look at, you know, full bottle spirits or beer, you're kind of moving a little bit further away from our core capability, and with that goes margin, and with that goes focus. So I'm really happy with the alcohol ready-to-drink, because it's close to us, and it's branded. We had Beam Suntory in Australia for 15, 16 years in that space, so we can really... You know, we really understand margin and how it works. So I'd expect more in that space. Yeah, because I, I think that's where we can make money.
Gail?
If Charlie's gonna ask another question, then I might as well ask a question, and apologies in advance if I'm a bit irreverent. A number of people in the Coke system even have told me that if you started with a blank sheet of paper, you wouldn't invent the Coke system we have today. Do you think the system that the Coca-Cola Company operates today is fit for purpose for the future? And if it's such a great system, why hasn't any other FMCG company invented the same system?
Oh, I can have a go if James wants to have a go at that. I so do think. I mean, looking forward, I think it's definitely fit for purpose. I've no doubt about that. I mean, I've been in the business long enough to challenge, would we be better as an integrated company? And you know, is there a lot of you know, complexity and cost because we operate a franchise business? So I've been through those conversations personally. We've had them with the company. It's not a. You know, it's an obvious question, right? So but what I think we've done, which is unique, is the value creation that supports the two systems is unique. You generally don't see that in other categories.
I think because of that, that discontent and the power of multiple balance sheets and multiple leadership against the same objective is really powerful. I think what's very different between us is, if you look at the slide, we're half retail, and we're half away from home, and there's no other category with that profile, not even beer. So it's probably easy to be integrated if 90% of your revenue is in retail, right? And it's probably easy to be integrated if 90% of your business is away from home, like a beer business. When you've got a business like ours, which is kind of spread across both, I think the power of the franchise model just works.
I think it challenges us as a leadership team to recognize the flaws in the model, so things like data and analytics and sharing. So I do think it puts pressure on us to continuously look at it and say, "Well, if we were an integrated company, we would do this quicker. So how do we do it quicker and not be integrated?" And for sure, there are some downsides. That's probably one.
Hello? No, yes. I would add a couple of thoughts on the, would you design it the way you designed it? One of the things that we have pursued in the refranchising is that refranchising projects should have industrial logic to them. If you look at some of the consolidations in the past, they were financially oriented or opportunistic, rather than synergistic from an industrial manufacturing or distribution point of view. So I think while we're not perfect, we're in a lot better shape than we were. The second thing I would say is, if you add together the market capitalization of the company with CCEP and the other public Coke bottlers, that combined market cap makes us the largest consumer product system in the world, versus everyone. And so we are the winners in terms of value creation.
Why others don't follow us is perhaps a question that should be more directed at them, given we have the largest market cap. I would just complement what Damian said, 'cause I agree with that, with it is also a strangely unique physical business. If you're in many other consumer products industries, or actually even a number of other of the beverage industries, the sweet spot in terms of numbers of factories and degree of localness tends to be very few factories. I mean, there are relatively few razor factories in Europe. There are relatively few pet food factories. There are relatively few distilleries. Because the nature of those manufacturing sites lends themselves to massive manufacturing scale relative to logistics. That's not true in the non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverage industry.
And certainly was not true when it started, and even is not true now. There's a strange sweet spot in terms of numbers of factories and warehouses relative to where the tens of millions of consumers are, that make us a much more distributed system that does not lend itself so much to that kind of vertical integration. The last thing I'd say is, a franchise system that works well, as can be shown by the market cap, can work very well. But when it doesn't work well, it's worse than being vertically integrated. It's one of those things where, you know, there's no perfect world, and you've got to make it work if you want to outrun the vertically integrated. In the end, the benefit is you get two halves who are very good at something different.
The company is good at a set of things, and the bottlers are good at a different set of things, and the magic of the franchise system is bringing it together. Whereas most vertically integrated companies orientate around being good at one thing, and that's why I think the Coke system works.
I didn't know if James is going to ask a question there, but if not, I was gonna...
Charlie? Like, now we've got the microphone.
Yeah
... we can have our own go now. What do you think is the biggest thing that's changed in the consumer products industry since COVID?
I would say the power of TikTok with millennials, Gen Z, is something that I would never have predicted coming along. I know Coke has done a limited edition Coke Creations brand there to capture it. But just the shift of attention, where pre-pandemic, you had all these avenues you could have your attention, in the pandemic, your attention was solely on your screen, and just the incredible adoption there and what it's meant in the consumer packaged goods industry of trying to adapt towards, you know, collecting these eyeballs, effectively, the younger consumer, to drive the next wave of sales growth. Again, something Coke has done phenomenally well with recruiting younger Gen Z consumers, as we were talking about earlier with Sprite in the U.S.
You know, if you, if you don't capture that next very much changed consumer at the young end, how do you drive the, the growth for the next twenty, thirty, fifty years? So I'd say that's probably the biggest one. And then I've got probably one last question for-
I thought I was done.
... for Damian, so CCEP is one of the forerunners in terms of sustainability in the sector, well, and in the Coca-Cola system. We've got a nice, you know, Sprite label-less bottle there. I think you're the number one bottler in the system when it comes to rPET in Europe, and the Amatil business is basically gone vertical from an rPET % of total since you took it on, so could we perhaps just talk about sustainability as it pertains to both being an opportunity for your company and, you know, taking costs out of the business with lightweighting to improve margins, then also some of, like, the key challenges you see over the coming years, particularly in some of the markets like Indonesia and the Philippines?
Yeah, it's a big part of our story 'cause it's important to a number of key, you know, stakeholders. So our people care, so if you look at our employees, and we talk to them. Our customers care. I think consumers care but won't pay more, but they care. And obviously in Europe and globally, regulators and our community. So for us, it's a key embedded part of our strategy, right across the business. So if you go through our P&L, you know, we look at ESG all the way through, so it's not a standalone event. It's very much embedded, and I think that's why we've made a lot of progress. You know, we were, I think, one of the first companies to put it into our incentive plans.
And when I think about it, you know, what's good for ESG is good for the P&L eventually. So, you know, using less energy, using less water, reducing the number of pallet movements, lightweighting your packaging, you know, right across, we can link a good ESG strategy is also really good for the core business. And over time, and we see it moving as consumers value brands more, that are more sustainable, that will also pay out. Not quite there yet, but it's moving. It's obviously different by market. I think if I look at the challenges in Indonesia, it was fundamentally about collection, so we had to just start taking back packaging.
So at the moment, we're collecting about 80% of all of our packages in Indonesia, and that's in two years, so we need to get to 100. We'll be there next year. Once we do that, then obviously we can reuse, obviously recycle. We're very excited about what aluminum is doing now in terms of recycled aluminum. That will be a game-changer for us in terms of CO2. But ultimately, we've got to, you know, continue on that journey to net zero by 2040. We're on track to hit our 2030 plans. We've got a ventures arm of our business that invests completely separate to our core business that's predominantly on sustainability initiatives, so that's like CO2 extraction. I saw a preform last week that was, you know, just created from extracting CO2 from the atmosphere.
So early days, but I think there's gonna be a lot of transformation in that space through technology and innovation that will allow us to get there a lot quicker. So it's exciting. As I said, our customers value it, our employees. I'm pushing hard to get consumers to really value it more. That'll happen sooner or later.
Perfect. Well, that's a great point to end. Damian, thank you very much.
Thank you.
for all those insights.
Thanks, Sheldon. Thank you.