Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I would like to welcome you to the Coca-Cola İçecek Conference Call and the live webcast presenting the 2024 financial and operational results. We are here with the management team and Coca-Cola İçecek A.Ş. CEO Mr. Karim Yahi, and CFO Mrs. Çiçek Uşaklıgil Özgüneş. Before starting, I would like to kindly remind you to review the disclaimer on the webcast invitation. After the call, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Burak Berki, Head of Investor Relations at Coca-Cola İçecek. Please go ahead..
Good morning and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our 2024 results webcast. As the operators said, I am here with our CEO Karim Yahi and CFO Çiçek Uşaklıgil Özgüneş. Today's remarks will be accompanied by a slide deck. We will then turn the call over to your questions. Before we begin, please kindly be advised of our cautionary statement. The conference call may contain forward-looking statements, including projections. These should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary language contained in our earnings release. A copy of our earnings release and financials are available on our website. In addition, in accordance with the decree of the Capital Markets Board, our 2024 financials are reported using TAS 29 financial reporting in hyperinflationary economies.
The financial figures in this presentation and all comparative amounts for previous periods have been adjusted according to the changes in general purchasing power of Turkish lira in accordance with TAS 29 and are finally expressed in terms of purchasing power of Turkish lira as of December 2024. However, certain items from our financials are also presented without inflation adjustment for information purposes. These unadjusted figures are clearly identified as such. Following the call, a full transcript will be made available as soon as on our website. Now, let me turn the call over to Karim.
Thank you, Burak. Good morning and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining CCI's full-year 2024 results webcast. Before we start our presentation, after more than three and a half years at CCI, first as Finance Director for Pakistan and then as Chief Financial Officer, our colleague Erdi Kurşunoğlu has decided to leave CCI to pursue other interests outside of Turkey. I would like to thank Erdi for his contributions to our organization and wish him and his family well in their new chapter. In light of Erdi's departure , I'm pleased to announce that Çiçek Özgüneş is now assuming the role of CFO as of March 1st. Many of you already know Çiçek well. Before stepping into this position, Çiçek built a strong foundation in corporate finance and investor relations, having successfully served as CCI Investor Relations and Treasury Director from 2023 to 2024.
I have no doubt that her expertise and leadership will add great value to our company, and I'm sure Erdi's success in his new role. Now, coming back to our presentation. Looking back at 2024, it is clear that it was a challenging year. We navigated a complex operating environment characterized by macroeconomic challenges, the cumulative impact of inflation, and ongoing geopolitical sensitivities, all contributing to the decline in consumer purchasing power and demand. However, at CCI, we have to stay focused on what we can control and influence. Remaining affordable, winning in store, and strengthening the quality of our portfolio helped us navigate challenges effectively. Our actions, combined with early signs of improving market dynamics, paved the way towards rapid recovery in volume performance towards the end of the year.
Accordingly, in the last quarter of 2024, we achieved a 7.3% year-on-year growth in consolidated sales volume, reaching 271 million unit cases. Turkey grew 18%, Azerbaijan and Iraq recorded middle single-digit growth, while Pakistan grew by 5%, following six quarters of decline. This improvement partially offset the softness in our full-year 2024 volume, which was 2.2% lower than the same period last year with 1.5 billion unit cases. Throughout the year, we continued to track consumer behaviors and accelerate recruitment by focusing on smaller packs, young trendy channels, and a low-and no-sugar portfolio, all in line with our long-term strategy. As a result, emerging consumption package shares grew by 183 basis points to 29.2% in full-year 2024. In 2024, we achieved a consolidated revenue of TRY 137.7 billion, alongside a 260 basis point increase in gross profit margin and a 50 basis point improvement in EBITDA margin year-over-year.
We have managed to keep our margins within an acceptable range despite the volume pressure we faced. Next slide, please. Throughout 2024, consumers and customers have been under pressure due to a challenging operating environment marked by persistent economic volatility, elevated inflationary pressures, and ongoing geopolitical tensions in the region. These factors had a substantial impact on consumer confidence and purchasing power overall demand dynamics. In this context, we have focused on what we can impact. Our sparkling volume declined by 4.4% year-over-year, with Coca-Cola trademark performance aligning closely with the category trend. Our stills volume experienced strong growth, rising 9.4% year-over-year, driven by 9.7% robust growth of Ice Tea.
This emphasizes the significance of portfolio diversification in our region. In this difficult context, CCI has focused on the areas we can manage to impact. In addition to the improvement in category mix, emerging consumption packages continued upward trajectory throughout 2024, with a 183 basis point year-over-year increase reaching 29.2% from 27.3% in 2023. From a channel perspective, share of our volume in traditional channels increased by 37 basis points year-over-year in 2024. Next slide, please. In 2024, we recorded a 0.1% volume increase in Turkey, while 18.4% growth in the fourth quarter was promising, building on the low base of the last quarter of 2024, shaped by the unresolved instabilities that emerged late last year. Combined with high inflation and lack of salary increase in the economy, our successful execution of consumer-centric marketing plans, combined with effective revenue management, delivered strong volume growth.
Our dedicated focus on quality and execution has driven progress towards our strategic ambition to evolve with our consumers and customers, leading to market share gain towards the end of the year. While our immediate consumption package shares grew by 16 basis points to 33.7% in 2024, share of on-premise channels slightly declined by 96 basis points to 31.6% in Türkiye, while share of traditional channels increased by 238 basis points to 37.9%. Continued focus on low- and no-sugar portfolio also contributed positively, as low-to-no-sugar portfolio shares among total package sales jumped by 7% year on year to 46.1% as of full-year 2024. In Türkiye, net sales revenue and net sales revenue per unit case declined 7.5% and 7.6% in 2024, respectively.
Without inflation adjustment, net sales revenue in Türkiye grew by 48.6%, and net sales revenue per unit case realized as 95.97%, with 48.4% year-over-year improvement thanks to continued focus on effective revenue growth management initiatives. The successful management of our cost base in Türkiye supported profitability, and hence we have realized 590 basis points year-on-year improvement in gross profit margin and 130 basis points year-over-year EBITDA margin in full-year 2024. Next slide, please. International operations recorded a 3.6% year-over-year decline to 934 million unit cases in 2024, mainly driven by weakened volume momentum in Pakistan. However, in the last quarter of the year, international operations grew by 1.4% year-over-year, with positive contributions from Pakistan, Iraq, and Azerbaijan. Pakistan's economy saw major shifts in 2024, with inflation dropping to 4.1% in December from 29.7% a year earlier.
However, high energy costs, taxes, and fast inflation continued to pressure consumer confidence and spending, leading to a 40.2% volume decline in full-year 2024. In international operations, net sales revenue declined by 3.9% year-over-year to TRY 52.75 billion, while net sales revenue per unit case recorded a nominal 0.3% year-over-year decrease. Although local currency prices increased in major markets, it was below the inflation adjustment rate. Without the impact of inflation accounting 29, net sales revenue was 38.8% year-over-year, and net sales revenue per unit case improvement was 43.9% year-over-year. Next slide, please. Among our largest international markets, Iraq recorded a notable volume growth of 12.1% year-over-year in full-year 2024, building on a solid base of 10.7% growth in the previous year. The growth in the sparkling category in Iraq in 2024 was the highest growth achieved in the Coca-Cola system globally.
Similarly, Azerbaijan achieved a strong volume increase of 9.2% year-over-year in 2024, demonstrating solid market momentum. In both Azerbaijan and Iraq, this positive volume performance reflects the combined impact of well-executed consumer-centric strategies, right pricing, and disciplined market execution, reinforcing our commitment to sustainable growth in these markets. In full-year 2024, Uzbekistan recorded a 3.8% volume decline, primarily due to the impact of newly introduced regulations and high taxation.
Additionally, this decline reflects the challenge of cycling exceptionally strong prior-year performance, during which the country achieved an impressive 25.8% growth, setting a high base for competitors. Similarly, Kazakhstan's sales volume declined by 6.4% year-over-year in full-year 2024, following two consecutive years of robust growth, which was partially fueled by temporary migration from neighboring countries. Pakistan's economy saw major shifts in 2024, with inflation dropping to 4.1% in December from 29.7% a year earlier.
However, high energy costs, taxes, and fast inflation continued to pressure consumer confidence and spending, leading to a 14.2% volume decline in full-year 2024. Thus, we focused on making our products more affordable while implementing revenue growth management actions. These actions have led to a 208 basis point increase in our immediate consumption shares and a 12 basis point rise in the on-premise channel shares year-over-year. Next slide, please. And I'm delighted to celebrate a significant milestone for CCI. Our first anniversary since the acquisition of operation in Bangladesh on February 20 of 2024. From the current day on, our goal has been to integrate the strength of CCI with a positive people mindset and rich market potential of Bangladesh. We have worked hard to align our strategies and hence operational capabilities and foster a diverse and inclusive culture. As we look ahead, our commitment remains unwavering.
We will continue to invest in our people, infrastructure, and technology to drive sustainable growth. With its dynamic market, Bangladesh holds immense potential, which we found out to lead us to great success. Bangladesh market has strong growth potential and a young, dynamic population, with 56% of the population under the age of 30, urbanization and accelerating rising from 37% in 2019 to 41% in 2023, which represents a significant growth opportunity for packages beverages. Despite being the eighth largest country by population in the world, non-alcoholic ready-to-drink per capita consumption remains among the lowest globally, highlighting the significant untapped potential. Bangladesh represents a strategic long-term growth market for CCI, and we remain committed to expanding our presence, strengthening execution, and unlocking its full potential in the years to come. Now, I will leave the floor to Çiçek for the financial review.
Thank you, Karim. Thank you for the nice words on the opening speech. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. As Karim mentioned, my name is Çiçek Uşaklıgil Özgüneş , and I'm excited to continue engaging with you in this new chapter. First, to our financial summary. All numbers you see here are with inflation accounting, unless I press otherwise. In 2024, we delivered TRY 137.7 billion in net sales revenue, reflecting a modest 5.6% year-on-year decline compared to last year. Excluding the impact of inflation accounting, NSR reached TRY 129.8 billion, with 43% year-on-year growth, driven primarily by effective revenue growth management initiatives. In the long term, we recorded $4 billion in net sales before inflation accounting. In the fourth quarter, our NSR declined by 8%, while without the impact of inflation accounting, NSR grew by 26%.
Türkiye's gross profitability was very positively impacted by the lower raw material prices, which were accompanied by right pricing. International markets were more under pressure cost-wise. Especially in Pakistan, sugar prices increased significantly in 2024, and that had a negative impact on gross profitability. Nevertheless, as a result of Türkiye's strong performance, our consolidated gross profit margin increased by 259 basis points to 35.3%. Without the impact of inflation accounting, gross margin increase was 132 basis points.
The lower-than-expected increase in cost of sales, relative to inflation, has contributed to a more significant gross profit improvement in our financials after hybrid inflation accounting adjustments, as Türkiye, which has gross profit improvement, has higher rates in consolidated financials. OPEX increased mainly as a result of employment and transportation, which was impacted also by the scale of the economy because nearly 40% of our operating expenses consist of fixed costs.
Accordingly, our OPEX increased by around 300 basis points. This offsetting improvement in gross margin and, as a result, our EBIT margin declined by 62 basis points to 13.7%. Without inflation accounting, EBIT margin was realized at 16.3%, with 169 basis points contraction. Without the impact of inflation accounting, we recorded $785 million of EBITDA with 20% margin. We had about TRY 2 billion higher in financial expenses due to high interest rates and the increased share of local currency borrowing. I will cover this in more detail in the next section. The monetary gain we recorded in 2024 was almost TRY 13 million lower than it was in 2023, due to indexation rate differences in 2024 and 2023. This mainly explains the swing in net income level compared to operating profitability. Net profit totaled TRY 14.8 billion in 2024.
Excluding inflation accounting, net profit in 2024 reached TRY 9.3 billion, with 12.5% year-on-year growth. Next slide, please. On a per unit case basis, NSR down by 3.5% in 2024 compared to last year. Without inflation accounting, NSR reached TRY 86.5 in 2024, up by 45.8% year-on-year, thanks to effective mix management actions, which include higher share of small packs and portfolio diversification, with increased presence of cost of sales categories. Due to productivity and more smart procurement measures, we managed to contain our cost of sales per unit case increase. Our cost of sales per unit case declined by 7.2% year-on-year, as we reduced costs at a higher rate and decreased revenues. The short-term demand rate also supported the impact of inflation accounting. Excluding inflation accounting, cost of sales per unit case increase was also lower than that of an NSR per unit case.
Subsequently, EBIT per unit case down by 7.6% to TRY 12.6. Excluding the impact of inflation accounting, our EBIT per unit case growth in 2024 became 32.2%, due to high OPEX, mainly on the back of successful cost management. Next slide, please. As always, we prioritized increasing visibility on costs and enabling us to focus on revenue growth initiatives. We continued to manage our prudent approach in procurement, which created a significant support for our improved gross profit margin during 2024, and we are very pleased with the cost of sales performance in 2024. We are encouraged by the stability we see in commodities along with exchange rates. So, in order to leverage this, we finalized a good portion of our contract and hedged for 2025.
As we sit here today, we are over 70% hedged in resin, have over 60% price visibility in sugar, and close to 60% hedged in aluminum. Of course, there are other elements of cost of goods like labor and utilities. We expect to see the usual inflation pressures on these. Given the current market conditions, we are confident in our exposure and coverage. We will remain diligent in this approach without exception and continue to monitor market opportunities. Next slide, please. This bridge explains the net income development. Net profit for 2024 was recorded at 14.8 billion TRY, marking a 50% decline, primarily due to the lower contribution from monetary gain, as I mentioned before. This was driven by the declining impact of inflation accounting adjustments. Lower costs offset lower NSR and higher OPEX, but this was not sufficient to offset the swing in monetary gain on the line.
On to the next slide, please. As a result of our financial policy, our balance sheet remains to be strong and flexible. While our net debt was $778 million at the end of 2024, our net debt to EBITDA was one time, slightly up from 0.8 times of 2023, and due to the acquisitions, one of which is Bangladesh, as you know, the other one is Anadolu Etap, minority stake, and finally the strong selling of Pakistan, minority stake acquisition two years ago. We have a short position after hedging at $36 million level, and before hedging , a fixed short position at $398 million. We always state that we monitor the short position by comparing it against our international EBITDA. The reason is that we repatriate part of the dividends from international operations and use it to serve our tax liabilities.
At the end of 2024, our net debt to EBITDA was 0.8 times, so in line with our policy. I want to highlight one achievement here. Over the course of the last four years, we have substantially decreased the share of hard currency loans to 57% from 84% in 2021. All local currency borrowings have high interest rates. When combined with the devaluation impact, the total cost of debt is much lower. Besides, we don't only diversify Turkish lira, but also to Uzbekistan, Pakistani rupee, Kazakhstan tenge, and Azerbaijan manats. During 2024, we paid back the remaining $300 million of our 2024 Eurobonds , and with that, our average maturity increased to three years.
This creates an additional comfort zone to manage and plan our liquidity in the global capital financial markets. The majority of the redemption scheduled for 2025, as you see on the right-hand side here on the slide, is either local currency loans or short-term portion of long-term borrowings. We plan to roll them again with local currency loans. Now, back to Karim for his closing remarks.
Thank you, Çiçek. Finally, we would like to share our view on 2025. Citing a difficult operating environment in 2024, we will remain focused on what we can control in 2025, staying true to our purpose of creating sustainable value. To that effect, we will focus on driving volume growth by prioritizing affordability for consumers, delivering world-class execution with our customers, and an overall commitment to operational excellence. Following the announcements of our 2025 volume guidance, we now offer a more detailed guidance on net sales revenue per unit and EBIT margin, both on a reporting basis and excluding TAS 29 adjustments.
Additionally, we have incorporated Bangladesh into our 2025 volume expectations, with a limiting impact on the previously provided volume guidance. Thus, we continue to uphold our previous volume guidance. This additional information offers further clarity on the financial outlook and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to transparent communication with our stakeholders. For 2025, we expect the following results on a reporting basis: mid-single digit volume growth on a consolidated basis, low to mid-single digit growth in Türkiye, and mid to high single digit growth in international operations.
With inflation accounting, we expect to deliver mid-single digit net sales revenue per unit growth with flat EBIT margin, and without the impact of inflation accounting, FX- neutral net sales revenue per unit growth by low 20s, with revenue increases in local currencies, balancing cost inflation and price affordability to drive volume growth with slight EBIT margin pressure.
Now, to close our presentation, in line with previous sessions where we shared more details about our CCI playbook, today we'd like to continue and share more about our commitment to excellence in in-store execution. Our commitment to in-store execution excellence is anchored on four major priorities. Number one, be available. This is to ensure that our portfolio is within our reach of desire from consumers in our 1.2 million stores in all our countries. Number two, be visible. This priority is focused on ensuring that our product is well-presented and, in effective terms, means that we place our product in coolers and sell our products with convenience to reach consumers in every location. Number three, be effective. We leverage our Route-to-Market, which I described in the previous session, and we make sure that we can reach our stores in the most effective way economically, and number four, be trained.
This is the priority where we make sure that we enhance our sales capabilities and equip our teams with more operational capabilities to help them do their job better. Be available, be visible, be effective, be trained. Ultimately, it is summarized in what we call one-on-one execution scores, and we track this performance in every country, every business. Now, as we evolve and embed more digital capabilities in our work, we also support our priorities with Daha Daha, ASSA, and CCI Next. We are continuously evolving our approach by striking the right balance between digital innovation and human touch, ensuring we deliver impactful experiences to both our customers and consumers. For instance, Daha Daha, which is owned by the Coca-Cola Company, ensures that we can connect with consumers, recruit them, and create more loyalty directly where they shop. Number two, ASSA.
This is one of the key advances in our daily execution. It is an artificial intelligence-powered order prediction model that we embed, and this technology enables us to better anticipate customer needs, optimize inventory management, and enhance service levels to ultimately guarantee that our products are available exactly when and where they are needed, and number three, CCI Next. It is a self-service platform designed to enhance our service to customers, particularly in traditional channels and on-premise locations.
With now over 300,000 registered users across Türkiye and Pakistan and Kazakhstan, CCI Next provides businesses similar access to our products and services, and by continuously monitoring customer behavior through the platform, we gain valuable insights that enable us to improve engagement, optimize service levels, and strengthen our relationships with our customers. Now, we will be happy to answer your questions. Dear closing agent, over to you, please.
Thank you very much for the presentation. So we will now move to the Q&A part of the call. If you are dialing via the telephone, please press star two. That is star two on your keypad for any question. You may also ask a voice or a text question if you are dialing via the web. We'll give a moment or two for any questions to come through. Okay, we have a voice question from Martin Nekrasov from Citi. Please go ahead, your line is now open.
Hello, can you hear me?
Yes, we can hear you. Yes, thank you so much for the presentation and congratulations to Çiçek with the new role. I have a couple of questions on the guidance specifically. So on the volume side, the guidance is quite constructive with mid-single digit growth. However, last year, I remember in the beginning of the year, you also guided on mid-single-digit growth. So where do you see recovery coming from, right? Maybe specifically by the market, and whether you see this year's guidance is confirmed currently by trends in the first couple of months. Yeah, that would be the first question. I have a couple more.
Thank you for your question. Look, guidance was basically us taking the learnings from 2024 and applying them to 2025. So number one, we assume that overall the context may not change dramatically in the future. Therefore, our focus remains on being affordable, executing in-store, activating revenue management initiatives so that we do not rely on the pricing, and leveraging the strength of our country portfolio. So ultimately, the guidance is to survive to our long-term expectation. We need to create volume. We need to recover volume growth.
That's why we have volume growth recovery in both Türkiye and international operations. From a revenue management standpoint, we are looking at not depending on the pricing, but again, activating the rest of the revenue management toolbox, meaning immediate consumption packages, category diversification with continuing to push on low-and no-sugars and portfolio, continuing to push on trade and traditional trade so that we can be less dependent upon pricing. That is for us to have pricing and revenue growth management initiatives cover cost inflation on one side, yet pricing being less than food and revenue inflation on the other side.
That is to help us absorb cost inflation on one side and remain affordable in the market. That is how we have created the guidance for 2025. We need to return to long-term sustainable value creation, and that starts with recreating volume growth to summarize. Now, what we see right now, starting in 2025, actually, we have a good strong start to 2025 as we are continuing to build on the actions we took in 2024, and as we continue to see the return on the investments we have made in the marketplace in the last quarter of 2024.
Okay, thank you so much. That is very clear. The second question is on, actually, I think we mentioned on the net sales revenue per unit guidance, mid-single-digit growth in real terms or 20s down inflation counting. Can you specify by market? Let's see, we would expect in Türkiye versus international in terms of that net sales revenue growth? And whether, like, if we go back to Türkiye, last year net sales revenue growth was low inflation, whether you would expect the situation to reverse in the future?
So we do not provide this guidance by market. However, let me share with you maybe some headlines and address your questions on how we see Türkiye versus international operations. One, in terms of numbers, we actually closed 2024. I'm going to share with you some dollars net sales revenue per unit case, just to share and provide some comparability. But in the fourth quarter of 2024, without TAS 29, we actually realized a $2.75 per net sales revenue per unit case, so $2.75 net sales revenue per unit case.
And this has put us as a full year, again, without TAS 29, at a level of $2.64 overall at CCI dollar net sales revenue per unit case. And if you look at comparability, the $2.64 net sales revenue per unit case dollar is above the $2.49 net sales revenue per unit case dollar that we had in 2023, for instance. As you can go back in history to the previous year as well, this puts us actually at a quite good level in terms of net sales revenue per unit case, yet without necessarily depending on the pricing, which was really the good work that the teams have done in the market.
Again, back to the earlier comments I made, we focused on remaining affordable, and we activated the rest of the actions that we had in our hands, again, pushing immediate consumption. That has reached overall for the year, 29.2%, a historical high, pushing on trends, pushing traditional trades, pushing low-end brokers. All these actions are not only working good to create good net sales revenue per unit case in the fourth quarter of 2024 overall and in the previous, but are also some actions that we need for the future.
This is where our actions in the short term meet the long-term aspirations we have, as immediate consumption is necessary to recruit more consumers because we are a low-tech market. We evolve with them, and all these actions also lead to higher profitability. For reference, immediate consumption margin, gross profit per unit case margin is actually 1.5 times future consumption. So small packs are more profitable than big packs, and by a ratio of 1.5x.
So to summarize, these actions we took in Q4 are not here to save the day, not here to save Q4, but they were here because there are some actions for the long term, and this is why we had implemented them, and this is why they created, this is how we have created the high level, relatively high level of net sales revenue per unit case in the long term without necessarily depending upon pricing. Now, moving to the second part of your question, how do we see 2025? Well, we're going to continue doing what we do, meaning we still see pressure on the inflation side in our major markets.
Therefore, we have to continue working in the portfolio to manage to be affordable on one side and to continue pushing on factor mix, on category mix, on channel mix so that we can continue creating healthy net sales revenue per unit case, and again, as I said, without necessarily depending upon taking price. And that is the model we have for all our countries, Türkiye and international operations.
Yeah, thank you so much. Just a very final question on the margin guidance. So flat with inflation coming and flat pressure without inflation coming. So I was just wondering what's driving the difference and which margin guidance closer flat, what would be happening in terms of, let's say, cash flows?
So I'm going to start and I'm going to let my colleague Çiçek elaborate on the difference between inflation accounting and without inflation accounting margins. But overall, look, the overall cost inflation in 2025 is going to be higher than the cost inflation that we had in 2024. Overall, commodity prices, although we are hedged, as Çiçek said earlier, to a high level, and we have confident ability to manage our margins, yet it is important to have in mind that 2025, from a cost standpoint, particularly on the commodity side, is not going to be as benign as it was in 2024. Okay? So that's number one. Now, which our objective again is to, at a low level, make sure that we price both cost inflation behind the inflation in the local market and that we do not depend only on pricing.
Okay? So again, pushing the mix, the favorable mix that we have over the long-term strategy that we have. Now, which margin? Sorry, which? That's how we have built our guidance. Okay? So then with inflation accounting and also flat margin, without inflation accounting and also with some pressure on the EBIT margin, which we're going to work to compensate. Now, for which margin to look at, I'm going to let my colleague Çiçek elaborate, and then on the three categories or plan that we have, I'm going to let Çiçek also elaborate on that. Çiçek, please, over to you.
Okay. Martin, regarding the inflation accounting, as you know, this is very dependent on the inflation assumptions, as you say. As Chris said, mainly let's just walk through the deliverable expectations for margins. As you say, this year we had a positive impact from the gross margin side, but that was offset by OPEX. In 2025, it will be the reverse. It will be the opposite.
OPEX, we expect improvements, but in the gross profit level, we expect some impact on the cost of sales, especially in Turkey. This year is an inflation accounting benefit. And since international operations are not inflation adjusted, but restated when we compare it to 2025 numbers, the 2024 numbers will be restated as per our year-end expectation of inflation to 30%. So that is below the net sales increase and the cost increase that we have. Therefore, the margin guidance, very technically, the margin guidance we give on inflation-adjusted basis is slightly better than without inflation-adjusted basis. But when we are also looking at our internal target, we are looking at both, but we are also acknowledging the fact that the inflation assumption that we use may materially change our inflation-adjusted guidance. Therefore, we also look at the non-inflation-adjusted numbers to measure our profitability. So that's basically the reason.
I don't know. Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. So we are now moving to the next question we have received from Hanzade Kılıçkıran from JP Morgan. Please go ahead. Your line is open now.
Thank you very much for the presentation and congratulations on your strong Q4. I just wanted to make a follow-up on Martin's question about the unit case, I mean, without inflation accounting. So you're guiding low 20s, but you highlighted that it won't be affordable. And when I look at the fourth quarter numbers, I mean, unit case without inflation adjustment was quite poor, both in international markets and also in Turkey. So would you please explain how you are going to achieve this low 20s growth while you want to be affordable?
Because this is something about the inflation growth. Look, I'm going to repeat myself, but first, in the fourth quarter of 2024, it's important to remember that intentionally we wanted to recreate volume growth in Türkiye, and good news is we have achieved that, and fortunately, we actually do have a portfolio of countries where we can actually activate the other parts of the countries so that we can then fund recovery of volume in the short term in Türkiye. So that's mainly the rest of the countries of Central Asia and the Middle East, basically. We have had opportunities to create profits, and we have used this profit to recreate volume growth in Türkiye in the short term so that the performance of CCI consolidated is not impacted negatively by short-term disruptions that we may have, so that's number one.
Then how are we going to achieve in 2025 our net revenue per unit case target? Well, again, important to remember that number one, we do have a portfolio of countries, and they are not all affected in the same way by short-term disruptions. That's number one. And number two, again, we're going to continue focusing on pushing immediate consumption, pushing low-end brokers, pushing still beverages, pushing on trends in Central Asia trade, which all are realizing higher net revenue per unit case than the average of CCI, and which also takes the pressure of taking pricing down over time. So that is the overall plan, and that is the game plan for 2025, and we're ready to start implementing it. Now, I'm going to need Çiçek to elaborate on your questions as well.
Just a small thing on Karim's point. One of the drivers of the net sales increase is coming from a tighter discount management. Between growth and net sales, as you know, there are a lot of discount items. Some of them go directly to consumers, some of them go to our customers. So we will be selective in choosing the discount items that we are going to implement so that it's not hurting profitability, sorry, affordability of our consumers, but will yield a higher net sales for us, and together with mix impact.
As you know, this year we had a decline in sparkling overall for two years, and the majority of the growth came from still beverages and also water, but this year, as Karim said, we are also leveraging our mix factors, so we expect improvement from mix. We expect improvement from tighter discount management, which will not impact affordability and some pricing actions. So altogether, we are quite confident that our net sales progression, together with geographical mix, is that we will deliver in line with our guidance. Right.
Okay. Thank you very much, Karim, Çiçek. And I also want to add a question on gross margins. I mean, it's great to see that you have great profitability across the year and all the full year numbers. When you look at the fourth quarter in Türkiye, as you also highlighted, there was a substantial setback in gross margins and cost per unit case, increasing substantially from the $1.2 back to $1. Would you recommend us to keep these $2 levels in cost per unit case being stable in 2025 when you use similar numbers?
In the first three quarters that we always said that we enjoyed the benign raw material prices in Turkey in 2024, it was mostly active in the first three quarters of the year. Whereas in the fourth quarter, we have seen an increase in our raw materials, both concentrate and some other raw materials as well. Some of them will continue. Some of them will be offset on a margin basis because the pricing is that we are taking zero offset increase.
But since in the fourth quarter, our net sales in Turkey was lower, as Karim said, we tried to support the trade, support the volume, because we had a good momentum in volume, and we want to make sure that this continues, and in order to secure that, our net sales for UC was also lower. That could not support the increases in the cost per UC in the fourth quarter. That should not be the case for the remainder of 2025. It should normalize going forward.
Right. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. We'll move to the next question. We received both questions and now fourth question from Bernhard Sellmeyer from Sana Capital. Please go ahead and line is open.
Hi. Thank you. I wanted to, I mean, it seems like there was volumes rebounding in Turkey. We've discussed it now as well. And it seems like in Pakistan. I mean, are you seeing that continuing in 2025 as well? I mean, up to now? And then is there a turning point in these markets? And then in addition to that, I mean, you also speak about volume performance in Pakistan in Q4.
Thank you very much for the question. Yeah. Look, again, in 2024, let's start differently. Something that we sometimes do not speak enough is the fact that we do have a diversified portfolio of countries. And I'm saying fortunately because when we manage our investments in the trade to create more volume and to create performance, we can actually activate different levers. So for instance, what Çiçek shared, what I shared earlier about Q4, we needed to create and we intentionally decided to invest in Türkiye in the last quarter of 2024 to reach the volume growth. And we funded these investments in the market thanks to the profit from the other countries. Just to summarize. And that is the trend of our country portfolio, a diversified country portfolio. Now, the trend we have created in Q4 of 2024, as far as 2025 has started, they continue.
We have a good start to 2025 because, again, actions we took in 2024 are not short-term actions. Ultimately, they are actions that are here to create sustainable volume performance. Now, as Çiçek said earlier, in terms of profitability, Türkiye we see is going to stabilize, and the other countries are going to also continue growing. But that's how we see Q4 2024 linking into Q1 2025. Because we need to keep in mind that our business doesn't stop with Q4 2024. The 1st of January is just one day after the 31st of December, the actions we take in 2024 and end of year are carrying us into the beginning of 2025 and beyond. But ultimately, we see positive momentum as of now in our markets, and we're happy with that because it confirms that the actions we took in 2024 were the right ones.
If I may add one thing, it's always good to have a check in terms of how the trade is going, how we're performing, versus our internal targets. I have no objection to that. We always maintain a long-term perspective. We are fully aware of our company's long-term potential, and we are operating in a highly seasonal industry. That's why we prefer to manage our business based on at least annual targets rather than quarterly goals. As one of the most profitable bottlers in the system, we strategically allocate our profitability at times investing in the market to drive volume growth, at times using cash flow generators to finance new investments and acquisitions, and at times leveraging it to continue creating value. So our focus is not short-term quarterly basis. We tend to look at it on a longer term, at least one-year basis.
Thank you. And in terms of when you say you reinvested in Türkiye Q4, does that mean it's just you ran more promotions to stimulate volume growth? So you were selling product at better prices?
Exactly. Okay. Exactly. And that is also continuing throughout th is in the first quarter as well because the Ramadan also moved forward 10 days in the first quarter. And Ramadan is always a big occasion for us, big event for us. So we are trying to make sure that we support our volumes by taking some of the promotions earlier in the year. And since both fourth quarter and first quarter are small quarters, any change that you make in investments makes a bigger difference. So that's why we are trying to get you to think more on a long-term basis rather than quarterly focus because there will be quarterly cyclical moves in terms of profitability and etc. But our guidance for the full year stands. It's different.
Yeah. And then maybe can you just unpack, I mean, what are some of the lessons you learned in 2024 that you are looking to be now in 2025?
Let's start. Lessons learned from 2024 that we're taking 2025. Look, I know this is a good question. Some of the lessons we start from where Çiçek left. The need for us to be very dynamic in the way we manage our resources and our performance. Right? So for instance, we invested in Azerbaijan. That's why you see the numbers in Türkiye being temporarily impacted because we invested to create more volume momentum in the country. Right? But then we were able to do that thanks to opportunities on the revenue realization and profit side that were coming from the other countries. And again, that's the strength of the portfolio. That's number one.
And this is to help us, as Çiçek said, never lose sight of the long term. A quarter cannot take you too far away from your long-term trend. And if you think about Q4, Q3, and Q4, overall, we actually have been able to weather the pressure. And at the end of the day, quarterly, overall CCI, overall consolidated performance was solid and not taking us away from the long-term trajectory because it was solid also for the full year and again taking us to the long-term trajectory. So that's number one. So number two, we focus on what we can control as needs.
Again, that is the most important message I share with our sales teams everywhere I go. We cannot impact the overall macroeconomic scenario, geopolitical context in our region. Nevertheless, what we can influence is what we do every day, and what is it? It's executing to the best of our capabilities in the 1.2 million store visits. That's number one. Number two, how do we price or not price, so how do we leverage revenue management so that we are not only dependent upon pricing? Pushing the mix, right? Category mix. Pushing the pack mix. Small format packs and big packs. Pushing the channel mix. Evolve with consumers. Meeting them at the point of consumption. Restaurants growing, therefore we need to grow with restaurants and with consumers.
And then once again, our things are good for the business because we recruit more consumers and are good for the market as well because, again, the market is 1.5 times higher for small formats and big formats. So again, focusing on what we can control and influence. And that is what we do every day in all our markets. So that is the biggest lesson from 2024 that we take with pride in 2025. And that's why we are confident in the guidance that we are sharing because we know that it comes bottom up from local market realities an d how we can impact the business positively in every market where we operate.
Thank you very much. That's a great detail. Thank you. I guess just speaking for myself and I guess many others, I mean, the focus again in Q was really because I assume most of us are just looking for where some turning point is for volume to have and prospect because of your market being such an underrepresented market. But yeah, thank you for the question. That's all.
Thank you very much. I'm looking forward to continuing our discussion with you because yes, our part of the world is under development, as you said. We have local capital. That's the way we measure opportunity for us. And we are looking at creating a long-term sustainable value creative business in our geography.
Thank you, Bernhard. Okay. Thank you. We'll be now moving to the next question from s. I have to go ahead to the line now open.
Yes. Thank you very much for the presentation and thank you for taking my question. I have just a quick one. So on your quick slide, I guess it seems that it was slightly negative during 2024. So I was just wondering what you're up for CapEx and maybe financing costs for the 2025. And also my second question, I apologize if I missed it during the presentation, but I think especially in the beginning of the year, Kazakhstan market wasn't performing as you would have expected or maybe it was slightly weaker compared to previous years. So I was just wondering what you're up for Kazakhstan for 2025.
Thank you. Okay. Let me take the first part from free cash flow perspective. We had a positive free cash flow without inflation accounting. However, due to inflation in the U.S., we had negative balance in inflation financials. Since this is a cash-based metric, we evaluated excluding the effect of inflation accounting. So we prefer to look at it when we are doing our own internal calculations, we exclude the impact of inflation first, so let me add data. Secondly, we expect free cash flow improvement to continue. Obviously, this period will be a priority for us. It will come from a couple of pillars. CapEx will continue to be high. High by high, I mean, still in the high single digits to NSR territory, but it is higher than the last five, six years average.
Because in the last five, six years, average CapEx to NSR was around 6%. Now we are looking at it like 800 to 200 basis points higher CapEx to NSR ratio. Both for 2024, and it will continue in 2025 as well because we keep on investing in our market. Capex will be more or less stable, but there will be positive growth in EBITDA on an absolute basis. We will be looking at a more optimized interest and tax environment because that's also another priority. As I mentioned, we are trying to reduce the FX exposure as much as we can by localized borrowing.
We are also trying to find a balance by using the currency portfolio to make sure that we can also leverage our international currency balance sheet where the cost of borrowing is much lower than in Turkey. We are trying to optimize our interest level as well. We expect some savings from the interest and tax side on our free cash flow. And also, obviously, on the net change in working capital, that will be again a priority. This year, we have seen some deterioration in working capital in 2024. For 2025, we are starting to improve it, and the improvement will come from all pillars, but mainly from a better investment management, which will be possible with the growth volumes. So these will take us to an improved Free Cash Flow yield in 2024. That's expectation.
And I have the second part of the question about Kazakhstan. In 2024, Kazakhstan went through some structural changes in the country. So you may recall that approximately 1.5 million people were asked to leave the country during the year. And basically, people that had moved into the country with their own purchasing power, and as they moved, as they left, they took away their purchasing power. That had created a hole in the economy and a hole into the non-alcoholic drink category and basically had eroded some of the opportunities that exist in the market.
Now, with this context, what have we done? Again, in Kazakhstan, we focus on what we can control. So we focus on execution. We focus on creating new consumption growth, continuing to build future consumption also at the same time. And we also opened our new factory in Shymkent, which is again a testimony to the fact that we believe in the long-term potential of Kazakhstan. Now, with all this, we have actually seen some good recovery also in the volumes in Kazakhstan. So we ended up with strong results.
And again, we focus also in Kazakhstan on regaining competitiveness so that we can always be stronger than the rest and have a higher leadership ratio versus competition. So all in all, although we don't share detailed guidance by country, Kazakhstan belongs to international operations. You see in our guidance that international operations are going to grow faster in 2025 versus Türkiye. Our plan is to grow international operations mid to high single digits in 2025. That Kazakhstan will be part of that mix.
Thank you very much. That is a very useful color. Congrats on your Q. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Before I move to the next questions, just a quick reminder. If you're connected to the telephone and you want to ask a voice question, this is the star two. That's the star two. If you have any voice question or want to send a text question and you're connected to the web, also you are able to do so. We'll be taking the voice questions first. Our next question comes from [audio distortion]. Please go ahead. You're on the line now.
Thank you. So thank you for taking my question. My question related to Bangladesh and Iraq and Azerbaijan. So you expanded into Bangladesh and you opened new plants in Iraq and Azerbaijan. So I'm just trying to understand here what is the long-term potential in these countries, especially Bangladesh. Thank you.
Thank you for the question. Look, the long-term potential of the three countries you mentioned, Bangladesh, Azerbaijan, and Iraq, is positive. I mean, this is a free market that are still relatively low capital. Although Azerbaijan has higher capital than Iraq, Iraq has higher capital by far. Nevertheless, all these free markets are true frontier markets where we have the opportunity. And that is why we have always this mindset that Çiçek has demanded. That is why we're going to open a new plant in Baghdad in 2025 and Azerbaijan also in 2025. Now, Bangladesh, for references for you, a good important reference for you is Bangladesh has approximately one-fourth, so 25% of the market per capita of Pakistan, when it has also 2X the GDP per capita of Pakistan.
So I'm going to repeat that just to give you some perspective. So to give you the number, Bangladesh non-alcoholic drink per capita is 10. And that is one-fourth of the market per capita of Pakistan, although it is a relatively richer country when you look at GDP per capita with a 2X GDP per capita versus Pakistan. So again, Bangladesh is a country full of opportunities for us. And that is why we made the acquisition. That is why we are excited about the opportunities there, investing right now in the growth market, investing in coolers, and implementing all the fundamentals of CCI.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Now we'll move into the next question from [audio distortion] . Thank you for the presentation. Could you please give us more color regarding the 2025 outlook and how was the consumer demand, both Turkey and international operations, in two months 2025? What is the expected Capex net sales for 2025?
I think this is a third monthly. For Capex net sales, we expect high single digits into 2025. As I mentioned that we had a good start to the year. So they may always have any follow-up questions. This was already answered.
Okay. Perfect. Thank you very much. Our final question comes from [audio distortion] . Why are volumes in Turkey 50% lower than where they were in 2019? How much of that is competition macro or were there one-off events in 2018, 2019?
Highly surprising for the question. Very simple answer. 2019, we had a tea business called Doğadan, which was a leaf tea business. And then we sold to Coca-Cola Company, and we started to deconsolidate that business. So that had around like 8% of impact on Turkey's volume. So without that, we are definitely above 2019 volume. If you look at our 2020 release, actually, you will see the restated 2019 number. And there you can see that actually it is lower than today. It is, let me just tell you, if I can find it. So for 2020, it was 512 unit cases without tea. So that is the main reason.
Could it have grown more in this period in the last five years? Yes, it could. Turkey definitely has the potential, but please bear in mind, since 2019 until today, purchasing power in Turkey decreased by nine times, cost of living increased by nine times in Turkey between 2019 and 2025, and on top of it, we had a major earthquake and a lot of other challenges. I'm not trying to find excuses here, but this explains maybe the below potential growth that we have in Turkey, but it is definitely not lower than 2019 numbers on an expectation. I hope that answers your question.
Okay. Thank you. I believe we have a follow-up question, voice question from Bernhard Sellmeyer from Sana Capital. Please go ahead and your line open now.
Thank you, so just one last question. I was just wanting to think if you can give us some sense of market share trends. I know that specifically you might not be able to share, but if you look over your markets, are you taking market share or is there certain markets where you might be losing or stagnating in market share? Could you go over your markets and just give us a sense of if you've been gaining a lot or losing or stagnating?
Thank you. Over. This is not something to typically discuss, but I'd like to give you some color. Firstly, we measure market share, but more importantly, we measure what we call leadership ratio. A leadership ratio is basically our share versus the second best. And our key indicator, our leadership ratio is above one in our biggest markets, and it is up to 2.5-3, for example, Türkiye.
Now, regarding recent trends, as I mentioned earlier, we have been focusing on revenue growth and volume growth. That was really critical for us in Türkiye, for example. Yes, over the past six months, seven months, we have actually recovered share month over month, right? That's one. Same thing in Kazakhstan, same thing in the biggest operations, in Uzbekistan, etc. In Pakistan, we are still under the pressure from local brands, but we know that opportunistic local brands, when they launch, they cannot sustain the same.
So, to say, they cannot play at our scale. Again, let's keep in mind that we deliver to 1.2 million stores every day. So in all our geographies, and the small brands and the local brands cannot sustain this. So opportunistically, they come in, but we know that over time, they do not sustain and they cannot compete with us. So all in all, to summarize, we remain strong. Our leadership ratio remains strong. And wherever we have suffered from some disruption on market share, we are working to recover that.
That's it. Yes. Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. As we are seeing no further questions, I would like to pass the line back to Coca-Cola İçecek team for closing remarks.
Thank you everyone for joining, and hope to see you next quarter. Bye-bye. Bye. Thank you everyone. Thank you.