Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Coca-Cola HBC Conference Call for the 2026 Half Year Results. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. There will be a presentation followed by the question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone keypad at any time and wait until your name is announced. I must also advise that this conference is being recorded today, Wednesday, 5th of August 2026.
I'll now pass the floor to one of your speakers, Jemima Benstead, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Thank you.
Morning, thank you all for joining the call. I'm here with our CEO, Zoran Bogdanovic, and our CFO, Anastasis Stamoulis. Zoran will begin with the strategic highlights from the first half. Anastasis will take you through our financial performance and outlook in more detail. We will open up the floor to questions. Please keep to one question and one follow-up, waiting for us to answer the first question before moving to your follow-up. We have about an hour for the call today, which should give plenty of time for a good discussion. I will also remind you that this conference call contains various forward-looking statements. These should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary statements in our results press release this morning, and at the end of our slide deck.
With that, I will turn the call over to Zoran.
Thank you, Jemima. Good morning, everyone, thank you for joining the call. I'm very pleased with the progress we've made in the first half of 2026. We delivered broad-based volume-led growth, continued to gain market share, and invested behind the opportunities that will support our future growth. Let me highlight three key takeaways from the period. First, we continued to deliver high-quality top-line growth. Organic revenue increased by 9.6% with organic volume growth of 7.5%. Volume growth was led by Sparkling and Energy, two of our strategic priority categories with marketing campaigns, innovation, and execution all playing a key role. While Q1 benefited from four additional selling days, we saw an acceleration in our underlying performance in Q2 to 5.8% growth with all three segments contributing, making it the 13th consecutive quarter of volume growth. Second, we translated this top-line performance into strong profit delivery.
Gross margins expanded strongly, which allowed us to step up marketing investments and still deliver strong organic comparable EBIT growth of 15.2% with margins up 60 basis points. Comparable earnings per share also grew 15.2%. This strong performance has allowed us to upgrade our guidance for 2026, which Anastasis will share more on later. Finally, we continue to invest in our 24/7 portfolio and bespoke capabilities, which underpins our long-standing growth trajectory and enables us to win in the market and consistently gain share. Overall, a strong first half despite the challenging backdrop. I would like to sincerely thank all our teams, customers, suppliers, and partners for their ongoing efforts and support. Let me start with a major highlight of the last few months. FIFA World Cup program delivered in partnership with The Coca-Cola Company.
From special edition Coca-Cola and Powerade packs to immersive fan experiences and market-specific activations, we brought the excitement of the tournament to millions of consumers across our footprint. Key highlights included our value-added promotion with Panini collectible stickers, which resonated strongly with consumers, and our AI-enabled penalty kick challenge, an innovative experience developed by our digital innovation hub that allowed consumers to test their skills by recreating famous football penalties. We also launched Powerade FIFA Playstyles, a special edition range with football-inspired flavors for the World Cup. Overall, the program has delivered strong results, supporting the positive trademark Coke and Powerade performance in the period and contributing to share gains for both brands. The value of an activation like the FIFA World Cup extends beyond the immediate volume impact.
It is also about strengthening the long-term relevance and equity of our brands by connecting with consumers and being present in moments that matter most to them. I'm very proud of the quality of execution in each of our markets and how our teams took this powerful global platform and translated it into locally relevant experiences, creating value for us and our customers. Let's move to Category performance, starting with Sparkling, which continues to be the core driver of our growth. Organic volumes grew 6.4% in the first half and 4% in the second quarter. Again, volumes accelerated on an underlying basis Q2 versus Q1. Throughout the period, we continued to bring excitement to the category, creating unique consumer experiences through focused execution of our campaigns and our innovation pipeline. Trademark Coke grew mid-single digits with Coke Zero up mid-teens.
I'm pleased that Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Zero Caffeine continued its momentum, achieving triple digit growth and accelerating further in the second quarter. This reinforces the strength of the proposition and the positive consumer response to the new visual identity we rolled out across 18 markets. We remain very excited about the opportunities ahead for Coke Zero Zero, including leveraging greater consumption in the evening occasion. Flavor innovation also continued to play an important role. Sprite's ongoing momentum with volumes up high single digits was supported by the launch of the new Lemon Mint Chill flavor in 12 markets. Schweppes volumes grew high single digits, supported by the launch of Schweppes Cherry Pepper, supported by dedicated in-store displays and activations. Energy continued its exceptional growth trajectory with volumes up over 25% in the first half. Growth was strong across all three segments despite tough comparatives.
Monster continued to benefit from a strong innovation pipeline, with key launches in the period being Viking Berry, Ultra Fantasy Ruby Red, and the new zero sugar flavor with Valentino Rossi. We also continued to leverage MotoGP, Formula 1, and football partnerships to deliver powerful activations. Now affordable offers in Africa also continue to perform well, particularly Fury in Egypt, supported by local marketing campaigns and the launch of a new 250 ml can. In Coffee, our strategic focus remains the out-of-home channel, so I'm pleased that volumes increased 24.5% in this channel in the first half. Both Costa Coffee and Caffè Vergnano grew strongly, supported by growth in existing outlets and the addition of more than 1,300 new out-of-home outlets. In line with our deliberate shift in focus, total Coffee volumes declined in the first half but grew in revenue.
We expect the overall category to return to volume growth in the second half of the year. Volumes increased 5.2% in the first half, with high single-digit growth in water led by emerging segments. Sports drinks continued to stand out with growth of around 25%. In the first half, we introduced Powerade Active Water in seven markets, a new range with a diversified proposition aimed at bringing new consumers to the category. As well as the FIFA World Cup, we continued to leverage other local sporting events. Premium spirits volumes declined 1.55% in the first half on tough comparatives and impacted by retail challenges with Finlandia in Poland that have now been resolved. Excluding this impact, the overall category volume would have been in growth, Finlandia would have grown low double digits.
As I have said before, investing in our bespoke capabilities is critical to sustaining our strong track record of volume, revenue, and EBIT growth and continuing to gain share. I want to call out a few highlights from the first half. Through our leading RGM framework, we continue to drive improvements in mix through targeting each local market. An important part of this framework is to grow volumes and ensure profitability. Over the past few years, we have consistently enhanced our promotion capabilities and tools to create more value with our customers. At the end of last year, we began rolling out Promo 360, a single end-to-end promotion management capability across pilot markets. This transformative approach brings together people, processes, and technology into one integrated platform, leveraging advanced analytics and AI to help our teams improve promotional effectiveness and drive stronger return on investment.
It is now live in seven markets and will be rolled out further this year. We also made continuous progress on packaging mix, with single-serve mix improving by 110 basis points in the first half. This was supported by the launch of new packs, including 500 ml PET bottle for trademark Coke in Egypt, a 500 ml super can in three markets, the introduction of 250 ml pack of Fuze Tea across eight markets. HoReCa remains a key channel for us. Here as well, we are constantly evolving our approach to capture the most value. Our new end-to-end channel approach is data-led and provides greater visibility of opportunities across the outlet universe, enabling us to focus on the highest value opportunities and tailor the right portfolio to the right outlet.
Another highlight was the opening of our new digital hub in Cairo, marking another important milestone in our group digital transformation journey. This strategic hub reflects our commitment to developing digital talent and building leading expertise to further enable innovation, operational excellence, support sustainable growth. All of our actions are driving clear results. As we continue to execute strongly and jointly create value with our customers, we further increased our value share year to date, gaining 80 basis points in NARTD and 40 basis points in Sparkling. Moving on to CCBA, where we are carefully planning for integration so we can hit the ground running after we complete the acquisition. We continue to make good progress towards completion, working through the customary regulatory filings and antitrust approvals and preparations for the secondary listing of our shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
As I mentioned at Q1, we have obtained antitrust clearances in four of the six jurisdictions. The latest development is that in July, the Competition Commission recommended that the Competition Tribunal approve the transaction subject to conditions as expected. We welcome this latest milestone, and we look forward to the Competition Tribunal's decision. Overall, we remain on track to complete the acquisition during the second half of 2026. Turning to sustainability, I am pleased that our performance continues to be recognized externally. In the first half, Coca-Cola HBC was confirmed for the ninth time as the world's most sustainable beverage company in the 2025 Dow Jones Best in Class indices. We also achieved the highest ESG score in the beverage industry in the FTSE Russell assessment, successfully maintaining inclusion in the FTSE4Good index series. We continue to invest in local communities across our market.
This included the completion of EUR 4.1 million water infrastructure project in Bulgaria, helping support the long-term well-being of people and local businesses. In addition, The Coca-Cola HBC Foundation committed EUR 1.5 million to support a fire protection program in Greece and a nature restoration project in Switzerland. Partnerships remain a key driver of our progress, creating both business and sustainability value. Following the successful launch last year of sustainable linked business plan together with Carrefour and The Coca-Cola Company in Romania, this year we have rolled it out to Poland. The plan focuses on emissions reduction, logistics optimization, and packaging collection.
Let me now hand over to Anastasis to take you through the financial results.
Thank you, Zoran, and good morning, everyone. In the first half, we delivered a strong financial performance. Organic revenue grew 9.6%, led by organic volume growth of 7.5%. Comparable EBIT increased by 15.2% organically to EUR 760 million. Their margins improved by 60 basis points. This resulted in strong earnings per share growth of 15.2%. Finally, free cash flow was robust at EUR 216 million, slightly lower year-over-year, reflecting a planned step up in CapEx as we continue to invest in growth. Let me start with the top-line performance. As mentioned earlier, organic revenue increased 9.6% in the first half, while organic volume grew 7.5%, underpinned by a strong underlying performance and the benefit of four additional selling days in quarter one. In quarter two, volume grew 5.8%, a further improvement on an underlying basis. Organic revenue per case increased 1.9% in the first half.
In line with our plans, we delivered an improvement in quarter two , which saw an increase in revenue per case of 2.1%. Overall, the lower revenue per case trends compared to previous years reflect more moderate pricing dynamics in a lower inflation environment, particularly in Africa. It is also driven by adverse country mix as we continue to see faster growth from our African markets, which have lower revenue per case. However, we continue to implement targeted Revenue Growth Management initiatives, supporting positive category and package mix in the period. Comparable EBIT increased by 15.2% organically and 17% on a reported basis to EUR 760 million. The main driver of this was gross profit. Our comparable gross profit margin improved by 110 basis points to 37.8%, benefiting primarily from strong recovery in the emerging segment.
We benefited from good top-line leverage and easing COGS inflation in the period, helped by our good hedging position and efficiency initiatives despite the recent macroeconomic volatility. The strong progress in gross margins enabled us to intentionally step up direct marketing investments behind key events and innovations, including FIFA World Cup and Winter Olympics, and the launch of the new visual identity for Coke Zero Zero. This resulted in operating expenses as a percent of revenue increasing by 50 basis points. Overall, our comparable EBIT margin still increased by a very strong 60 basis points to 12.2% on both an organic and reported basis. Let's now look at the drivers of performance by segment. I'm going to discuss these figures on an organic basis and for the first half of the year, unless I say otherwise. In the Established segment, revenues grew by 6.2%.
Volumes grew by 4.8%, with an underlying acceleration to 3.4% growth in quarter two and a good start to the summer season. Sparkling grew mid-single digits, supported by Coke Zero, Coke Zero Zero, and Sprite. Energy continued with its strong momentum, and Stills grew mid-single digits, driven by good performance in Water and Sports Drinks. On a country basis, I'm very pleased with the improved performance in Switzerland, with volumes up high single digits and the continued good momentum in Ireland. Revenue per case increased 1.3%, reflecting targeted pricing and positive category mix with an improvement in quarter two. Established segment comparable EBIT increased 6.9% with good operational leverage offsetting higher marketing expenses, leading to 10 basis points of margin expansion.
Turning to the Developing segment, revenues grew 9%. Volumes grew 5.3% with 3.7% growth in quarter two. Sparkling grew mid-single digits driven by trademark Coke and Sprite. Energy grew strong double digits, and Coffee grew strongly in the out-of-home channel. In terms of country performance, Czech continued its strong momentum, delivering high single-digit volume growth despite a tough comparative. In Poland, volumes grew low single digit in half one, supported by an underlying improvement in quarter two. Revenue per unit case increased 3.5%, supported by pricing actions and positive category and package mix. Single-serve mix improved by 210 basis points. Developing comparable EBIT grew 1.8% with higher marketing expenses, leading to a decline in margins of 70 basis points.
In the Emerging segment, revenue grew by 12%. Volumes grew 9% with 7.2% growth in quarter two. Sparkling volumes increased high single digits, including strong double-digit growth in Coke Zero and high single-digit growth in Fanta and Sprite. Energy grew strong double digits despite tough comparatives, and Water grew strongly.
In terms of countries, the performance of both Nigeria and Egypt has been strong in the first half of the year, with volumes up low double digits and low teens respectively, continuing the momentum of 2025. It was great to host investors and analysts in Cairo last month for the latest bite-sized investor event, where we proudly shared Egypt's growth and investment journey since our acquisition in 2022. Revenue per unit case increased 2.8%, a moderation compared with recent years. This reflects both lower pricing to address lower inflation and limited currency headwinds in the period, as well as adverse country mix as African markets which have lower revenue per case compared to the CCH average grew faster. Comparable EBIT in Emerging grew strongly, up 23.9%, driven by strong operational leverage and growth in gross profit offsetting higher marketing expenses.
Moving to the group P&L, we saw comparable earnings per share grow 15.2% to EUR 1.51, supported by the strong EBIT delivery, partly offset by higher net finance cost year-on-year. The finance costs were impacted by higher interest expense related to the new bonds issued for the CCBA acquisition, partially offset by higher finance income on our cash balances. The first half saw a year-on-year step-up in CapEx of over EUR 100 million as we invested in growth-driving initiatives, including new production lines in Nigeria and Egypt, supply chain automation, digital and data solutions, and energy-efficient coolers. CapEx as a percentage of revenue was 6.1% ahead of the prior year period, but slightly lower than our targeted range of 6.5%-7.5% in line with our planned phasing.
With a strong growth in EBIT, we generated solid free cash flow of EUR 216 million with a decrease year-on-year reflecting the planned step-up in CapEx as I just mentioned. Moving to the outlook for the year, as we progress into the second half, we expect the macroeconomic and geopolitical environment to remain both challenging and unpredictable. Having said that, we have high confidence in our unique 24/7 portfolio, in our bespoke capabilities, in the growth opportunities across our diverse markets, and in our people. Reflecting our strong first-half performance consistent with our planned phasing for the year and considering the challenging environment, we now expect to deliver full year 2026 organic revenue growth around the top end of our 6%-7% range, and organic EBIT growth of 8%-10%. We have also updated our finance cost guidance and FX translation guidance for the year.
Let me now hand back to Zoran to conclude.
Thanks, Anastasis. To close, let me reiterate the key messages from today's results. First, we delivered a strong first-half performance with broad-based volume-led revenue growth, continued share gains, and good momentum across our priority categories. We converted this top-line growth into a strong profit delivery with double-digit comparable EBIT and EPS growth. This strong performance allowed us to upgrade our guidance for 2026, as Anastasis just mentioned. Finally, we continue to invest behind the opportunities that will support our future growth, strengthening our 24/7 portfolio, our bespoke capabilities, and developing our people. Looking ahead, we remain confident in the strength of our business, the diversity of our markets, and the capabilities of our teams to continue creating value for all our shareholders.
Thank you once again to all our colleagues, customers, suppliers, and partners for their ongoing efforts and support. Thank you for your attention. Let us now open the call up to your questions.
Thank you, dear participants. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw a question, please press star one and one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. This will take a few moments. Now we're going to take our first question. The question comes line of Aron Adamski from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open, please ask your question.
Thank you. Good morning, Zoran, Anastasis, and Jemima. Congrats on the results. My first question is on the EBIT outlook. The midpoint of your guidance appears to imply low single-digit organic EBIT growth in the second half and probably some margin contraction. Could you please help us bridge the key moving parts behind that, including the impact of fewer selling days? More broadly, does the outlook assume any moderation in the underlying profit growth for the second half? That's my first question.
Good morning, Aron. Thank you for your question. Let me first start by saying that I'm very pleased with our strong first half of the year, because we delivered high-quality organic revenue growth with both volume and price mix across all our segments, and that translate to a strong EBIT delivery. As you said, looking ahead for the second half of the year, in line with our phasing expectations, maybe you recall what we said back in our call for quarter one, we do expect the half two to grow at a lower level than half one did. Correctly, this reflects four fewer selling days in the last quarter of the year.
On top of that, I have to say that we're also factoring in higher energy-related cost pressure for the second half of the year in relation to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Overall, I have to say that we are confident in narrowing the guidance range to 8%-10%, which reflects both the strong first half, also allow us to be prudent and capture the current unpredictable environment, especially considering that we still have five months ahead of us to go.
That's clear. Thank you. My second question is on the pack mix, which continues to improve strongly. Could you please remind us of the remaining runway to increase the single-serve mix across your business? Where do you see the largest opportunities to drive that growth? It would be great to hear if you can please give us some color on how does 110 bps improvement in package mix translate into group-level price mix, how accretive is that for the group margins? Thank you.
Thanks, Aron. I'll start and then Anastasis add if I miss something. Growing single-serve mix is a part of our revenue growth management approach and strategy, where we see a number of opportunities across all three segments and across all markets, across all categories. We've been deliberately expanding and as a priority will serve packages in our key campaigns, and in overall marketing programs. The opportunity is there, as I said, across all segments, especially when we see in Central Europe and more Eastern Europe markets, this is where we see the opportunity for, let's say, wider opportunity for single-serve continuous growth. That's why sometimes you see us intentionally activating certain campaigns only on the single serves.
There is deliberate effort in creating shopper habit for selling multipacks of single serves in the at-home channel for the in-home consumption. On top of course, our stronghold of HoReCa, where continuously we are having the drives to drive our single serves. Still lots of opportunity to drive those.
Yeah. Aron, to your question about the contribution of single-serve mix to the overall price mix, I can say that it varies from segment to segment. For example, in the developing segment, you can say that half of the revenue per case contribution is coming from the single-serve mix. Equally, I can say the same to the emerging segment. It's part of our overall RGM strategy that mix is playing a big role in driving value, which of course translates to profit and margin expansion, subject of course to the relevant brand portfolio. Right? It's overall accretive, I can say.
That's very clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. The next question comes line of Nadine Sarwat from Bernstein. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Yes. Thank you for taking my question. Two for me, please. First, coming back to the guidance which you've narrowed to the top for both top line and bottom line guidance, can you provide us some color as to what specifically surprised you in Q2 and gave you the confidence to change your full year guidance? My second question is on net sales revenue per unit case growth. I believe that came in lighter than perhaps some were expecting, and I appreciate the color you provided on country mix. If I look at the 2% organic growth you printed in Q2 for the group, is that a run rate we should expect for the second half, or are there any reasons why we would see an improvement in that figure? Thank you.
Hi, Nadine. Thank you. I wouldn't say that we had any surprise in Q2. We were heading into Q2 with a very strong programs, most of all, FIFA World Cup, for which together with The Coca-Cola Company, we have prepared extensively, really activating consumers with special edition packs, with promotions, with digital activation, with consumer experiences. We have really done excellent preparation, I would say, of any World Cup best so far. It's already our pre-season period. Coupled with that is also innovations that we have been doing in the first half and second quarter, which I mentioned in my remarks, but they clearly had a good impact both in Sparkling and Powerade, and also Energy.
All in all, Q2 was in line with our expectations and with all the programs that we have. That gave us the confidence to do this upgrade in the guidance that we just communicated there. In relation to the revenue per case, you will remember that we said in Q1, and it's valid also for Q2, that after a number of years where we really had a predominant generation of revenue through price mix, this year, we are intentionally more prioritizing and focusing on volume. Not neglecting revenue per case or price mix, which had improvement in Q2. We do anticipate that in the second half, we will see some further slight improvements in the revenue per case.
I just want to conclude, Nadine, to say that this is a year where, in our revenue growth management, all three drivers of volume, price, and mix simply need to deliver, and they will. In this algorithm for this year, volume is going to be the one that is going to take more weight in our revenue generation.
Perfect. Thank you.
Thank you. We're going to take our next question. The question comes line of Matthew Ford from BNP Paribas. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Morning, Zoran, Anastasis. Two from me as well, please. The first one just on the performance in Egypt and Nigeria. Clearly the emerging segment was particularly strong from an EBIT perspective. Clearly the growth in Egypt and Nigeria continues to do well. My question specifically was on the profitability you're seeing there and the margin expansion. If you could give any color on how that margin expansion developed in the first half in those markets and what the expectation is in H2 and beyond. I'll follow up with my second question.
Hi, Matthew. You're correct. The emerging segment performance was very strong, both on organic revenue, 12%, and also very strong EBIT growth of almost 24% with margin expansion of 140 basis points. As I said on the call, the key driver for that starts with a strong improvement in gross profit, which was of course helped by the very good top line performance driving leverage. Cost inflation compared to prior years' first half was following a lower trend as we have seen. We have benefited from our hedging and productivity initiatives in those markets. There was also positive FX transactional tailwind. That allowed us to drive strong profitability while at the same time we stepped up marketing investments in those markets. This good performance on the margin is on the back of incremental marketing spend.
To your question on the second half of the year, how this will evolve, we do expect EBIT to be, of course, positive. As I said earlier on the overall phasing, these markets are also impacted by the four less selling days in quarter four. Obviously half one will have a bigger weight as we've said. We do expect, given the current environment, certain pressure when it comes to fuel related cost pressures compared to what we saw in the first half of the year. We do expect that those markets will continue to grow profitably, and we are very pleased with the performance.
That's great. My follow-up is just on Russia. Actually, I think on the volume performance, I think we were up mid-single digit for the half. Obviously Q1 we saw low single digit growth, but that was with the benefit of the selling day. It feels like on an underlying basis, there was an improvement sequentially in Q2. Any color on what was driving that and your expectation, I suppose, for the growth as we go into the second half where I think the comps were fairly soft. Just staying on Russia, just one quick one. I see the Russia cash has just gone above EUR 1 billion, I think, in H1.
Clearly, that's generating quite a lot of interest income. Given the sort of EUR 8 million of net finance costs in H1, just interested to get your feel of exactly what's driving that sort of implied acceleration in the net finance costs in the second half to get to your revised full year guidance. Thank you.
Thanks, Matt. Look, situation in performance in Russia, I think it continues in line as in the previous years. Nothing different. We see that this locally managed and locally financed business is doing as we just announced in the press release. Really no big changes in the things happening there.
Yeah. Okay. A couple of points that you raised there. First of all, on the cash of Russia. Yes, it's just over EUR 1 billion now, but we have to understand that the kind of phasing will not follow the same rate of growth throughout the whole year. We had the same discussion last year that the first half is more upfront than the second half. Please keep in mind that this cash in Russia is also having a positive tailwind from the currency translation, right? It's not just only performance. Now, to the finance cost question, to be a bit more detailed now. You've seen that for the first half of the year, the finance cost of EUR 8 million is an increase, but this came better than expected.
First of all, on one thing, we have the higher interest expenses that relates to the bond that we issued earlier in the year in March for the CCBA funding. That obviously is one of the drivers of the incremental finance cost. At the same time, we are benefiting from two elements. One is also a good, stronger cash flow generation in markets like Nigeria compared to 2025, which means less need for local financing than it is originally expected. There is a benefit from higher finance income, which, of course, includes also the cash in Russia. It's the cash in Russia, keep in mind, the benefit there is not all held in ruble. There is an amount which is, let's say, 5% is local currency, the rest is Forex.
The interest benefit is not as high as you would expect. It's coming lower than the market trend. For that, given the good performance of the first half, we're also upgrading the guidance to EUR 40 million-EUR 50 million for the full year. On the second half, there is an implied increase to that cost. That, of course, has to do with the fact that you will have six full months of the bond issuance versus only a quarter in half one. It directly correlates to the timing of the CCBA completion. We also expect lower finance income on the back of lower interest rates in countries like Russia.
Brilliant. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Now we'll go and take our next question. The question comes line of Charlie Higgs from Rothschild & Co. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Hey, Zoran, Anastasis. Hope you're both well. My first question is on sports drinks, which had a very good performance, volumes up 25%. I was wondering, Zoran, what your view is on the advanced hydration opportunity across your markets and how you plan to make the strong growth stick from Powerade? Because I imagine quite a lot of the growth came from temporary in-store displays around FIFA and the Winter Olympics. Thank you.
Good morning, Charlie. Thank you. Powerade, while we've seen a really excellent performance in Q2 and overall the first half, this actually is a continuation of strong performance over the last couple of years. This brand proves excellent potentiality and relevance with consumers and with customers. I'm very pleased how we've been activating this with various sporting events. Now it was FIFA World Cup. Overall, we are connecting Powerade with a number of sporting events, whether that's sponsorships with various clubs, events, or sports facilities. Going forward, exactly as you said, we do see the opportunity together with Coca-Cola Company in the advanced hydration. We think it's an exciting and definitely growing category, and it is an opportunity that we will be going after and doing more and more. Let's just stay tuned in and we'll see what happens.
Thank you. My follow-up was on energy drinks, which again continues to perform very well from volumes. Can you maybe just give a bit more color on the various buckets of Monster versus Predator and Fury versus some of the strategic brands like Burn? How much innovation is coming from kind of the core range versus some of these new launches like Viking Berry? Maybe just kind of bolting on for Anastasis, roughly how much of the energy drinks do you do in-house now versus co-packers? Is there maybe scope going forwards with this strong volume growth to bring more in-house to boost margins? Thank you.
Yeah. Charlie, energy continues to really perform very well. This is the first year where contribution of energy just exceeds 10% in our total volumes. I'm sorry. Well, I fast-forwarded a bit. I wish it was 10% of revenue.
Yeah.
Where the proven formula continues to deliver, which is that reformulation, introduction of zero flavors, new innovative flavors like what I said now with the Viking Berry. Innovation overall is a very important driver in this category of driving incremental volume and revenue. On top of that, continuous very good activation and leverage of the passion points that together with Monster, we are doing across the market, whether that's MotoGP, Formula 1, football, and also in a number of markets as well, music. Good reminder that quarter of the energy drinkers have entered the category in the last 12 months. This just also shows that the whole category is growing, and it's present across more and more occasions. It's quite balanced between the gender.
I'm just giving this flavor to literally give you more facts of why, A, the category is growing, but also why we are growing faster than the category growth. We are now already in 11 more markets. We are stronger in our shares than Red Bull. We are positive going forward also with the prospect of this category growth.
Hi, Charlie. Our current in-house production capacity covers about between 50% and 60% of the total energy.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you. We're going to take our next question. The next question comes the line of Mitch Collett from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open, please ask your question.
Thank you. Hi, Zoran. Hi, Anastasis. I appreciate it's probably quite a small part of the portfolio, but I was really interested in the acceleration in Coke Zero Sugar Zero Caffeine. I think you say you did strong triple-digit growth, which in itself is an acceleration on a strong Q1 where it was, I think, strong double-digits. I guess I'm interested in how big a contributor you think Zero Sugar Zero Caffeine can be. It doesn't look like it has a negative impact on Coke Zero, which is still doing well. Can you comment on the sort of rollout strategy of that under the new branding? Thank you.
Hi, Mitch. Yeah, look, the Zero Sugar is really now multiyear, continuously faster-growing part of the Coca-Cola trademark, that's absolutely great. The first half was no exception with a really great mid-teens growth. This Zero Sugar Zero Caffeine, which we are growing with triple-digit growth has been absolute hit with consumers, tapping really into the occasion. As Henrique very well explained also in his call in Q1, this is really understanding the insight of consumers and coming up with this innovation and then creating this intimacy with consumers in every single market, follow with the integrated execution that we are doing with a number of packs, also focusing this in this occasion, especially from late afternoon and evening occasion, where the insight is that big number of our consumers are trying to avoid the caffeine.
It is continuously growing in the contribution on the whole Coca-Cola trademark as also in other flavors. In flavours in Fanta, Sprite, Schweppes , where we are also reformulating and leveraging this zero sugar trend. We do expect that this trend is also going to continue, and you will see us with a strong focus behind it.
Thank you. My unrelated follow-up is on COGS. Given you've called out energy pressure on COGS in the second half, I appreciate it's early, but can you just give us a bit of color on how you might think about COGS in 2027? I guess linked to that, can you just tell us how hedged you are for 2027 at this stage? Thank you.
Yeah. Hi, it's Stamoulis. For 2027, I think it's a bit too early to comment right now as a lot depends on the evolution of the current situation that we are all experiencing. All I can tell you is about the hedging status that we have for the full year of 2026. We are above 85% covered on our key commodities hedging positions, and it's basically, as I said before, the energy-related costs that could have on the non-coverable, hedgeable utilities countries, for example, that would have an implication on our COGS per case for the second half of the year.
I can say also that in relation to 2027 hedging coverage, we are where we would expect to be at this time of the year. We will share more details as we come towards the year-end. Just as an indication, our hedging policy goes up to 36 months. Hope this helps for now.
Thank you both.
Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. The question comes line of Simon Hales from Citi. Line is open, please ask your question.
Thank you. Morning, Zoran. Morning, Anastasis. Morning, Jemima. A couple for me. Anastasis, can I just come back on the COGS discussion? I may have missed it, apologies, but in terms of 2026 guidance on COGS, I think back at the Q1 stage, you were saying low single-digit COGS per case for the full year. Given the higher energy costs in the Middle East that you're seeing now, what is the guidance for this year and particularly for H2 on that? Apologies if I missed that.
Secondly, I wonder if you could just talk a little bit more about the performance in volumes that you saw through Q2, by region and particularly perhaps what the exit rate was. I'm thinking probably crucially in places like the established and developing markets where perhaps the weather was particularly good at the end of the period and into early Q3. I don't know, Zoran, whether you would venture a guesstimate as to how much of an uplift perhaps the World Cup activation has given you overall from a volume perspective in the first half.
All right. Well, let me give a bit more clarity on the COGS guidance. Thank you, Simon. As I said, the overall Middle East situation, believe that it will be manageable given the strong hedging position we have of 85% on key commodities. As there is a certain level of energy-related costs that cannot be hedged as you understand, that's where we see most of the pressure, and that's where we expect that for the second half of the year, our COGS per case would be expected to be from low towards mid-single digits for the second half, which also would indicate that the full year would be on the same, low to mid-single digits.
Simon, to add from my end, it's hard to pinpoint exact number to contribute to the volume growth. Clearly FIFA World Cup activation had a very positive boost and impact on our performance on Coca-Cola trademark and Powerade with everything that we've been doing and I explained a bit earlier. Clearly positive impact and not only during the tournament duration, but we also see that this type of thing also has a positive impact going forward with customer relationships, with the strength and the brand equity. That's why we love these kind of properties, as they have positive impact.
Got it. Thanks, Zoran.
Thank you. We're going to take our next question. The next question comes line of Sanjeet Aujla from UBS. Your line is open, please ask your question.
Good morning, Zoran, Anastasis and Jemima. I'd like to dig into the established markets. We've had a couple of years of soft volume performance. Clearly 2026 has been collected. Can you help us understand how much of that volume improvement we're seeing is perhaps a function of the weather or just underlying consumer fundamentals are a little bit better? How are you thinking about the second half of the year? Are there any key markets you're maybe incrementally positive about or incrementally concerned about as we go into H2? Thanks.
Hi, Sanjeet. Thank you. Well, very pleased with the performance in the established segment across all markets. Let me just highlight that particularly, we've seen Ireland performing really well now continuously. Switzerland, very nice performance in the first half. Good bounce back in Austria. You heard me saying last year how Austria was impacted by the DRS start, now nicely coming back. Greece had a pretty solid mid-single digit performance, also Italy also with a good performance. Overall, quite well-rounded performance in established by all the markets. I'm also very pleased to see how our brands have performed. My Coke had a beautiful mid-single digits performance. Energy continues to perform well across all segments, but it's also important to highlight it in the established segment.
Just use the opportunity to connect the question that Charlie had, just a small correction that we are already around 85% production in-house of Monster as a result of the fact that we've been together investing behind in-house capacity, as we see that also as very important. Overall, I'm positive that our established segment will continue with a good performance and will be positive on a full year level. I think you asked on the weather. I really can't pinpoint one number that can be given for the weather because we look at it over multi-month horizon. When you see the first half beginning of Q1 had really unusually colder weather in a number of markets. Even Q2, it started with a mixed weather with quite rainy periods in a number of markets.
Definitely we were happy with the warm weather in June. Overall, it did have a positive impact and I regard it as a tailwind. It's not easy to say what exactly that was for the Q2.
Right. Could I just.
Go ahead, Sanjeet.
My follow-up is just on the revenue per case in established. We did see an improvement in Q2 versus Q1. I think, I recall Q1 was held back by the skew towards the larger pack formats. Is Q2 a more normalized kind of run rate for revenue per case in established? Can you help us decompose that between core pricing and the various mix tailwinds you were getting out of the region?
Yeah. Hi, Sanjeet. Correct. Q2 accelerated to 1.9% revenue per case. There were a couple of areas. First of all, there was positive category mix. You heard Zoran talking about energy was up strong double-digit. There were certain targeted pricing actions that we took in there. We had also improvement on the single-serve pack mix, 80 basis points in particular was the step up in single-serve mix in quarter two. Maybe you recall when we were saying back in the call for quarter one that there was a phasing element of the Easter, which resulted to more multi-serve packs coming into the first quarter. Now we're seeing the more normalized trend.
On average, the overall half was with single-serve mix of 50 basis points. I can say that the quarter two represent the more accurate, let's say, performance of revenue per case.
Great. Very good. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Now we're going to take our next question. The question comes line of Fintan Ryan from Goodbody. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Good morning, Zoran, Anastasis, Jemima. Two questions from me, please. Firstly, I guess probably a more technical question for Anastasis. I've noticed in the disclosures that you've exceptionalized EUR 15 million cost in H1 associated, as you said, with the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the transport costs. Could you provide a bit more context in terms of what those costs are? Are they just a one-off cost in H1, or should we be factoring in some recurring exceptional costs going forward?
Hi, Ryan. Thank you. Let me provide a little bit of clarity here. First of all, it's not the first time that we have something under the Russia- Ukraine war as a non-comparable item in line with the APMs. This basically has to do with the disruption that was caused in the operations in Ukraine, and the plant as a result of the conflict, which resulted to having to source products from other facilities, mainly coming from Poland and Romania. That was a one-off disruption that resulted to incremental transportation, you can even call it haulage in this case, and some repairs required in the facilities. This all has been normalized. We're fully operational back in place. It's not a comparable, not a repeated item that you should consider as operational.
Great. Thank you.[crosstalk] My second question, I guess bigger picture, probably for Zoran. You've called out functional waters and zero caffeine, zero sugar as an area of focus. One thing that we're seeing consumers across many markets is that protein trend. Just wondering your thoughts and your portfolio, obviously yourselves and The Coca-Cola Company with the fairlife brand in the U.S., is there anything that you're currently thinking or planning on bringing into your portfolio or markets to play into the protein trend over the foreseeable future?
Yeah. Good morning, Fintan. Yeah. Look, overall, the umbrella of innovation is something that The Coca-Cola Company team is really working very hard on that. I think there are a number of very exciting things in the pipeline. We feel excited about it, and I can only say that protein is on the horizon of looking into that and considering. That's part of the things that we are discussing together with The Coca-Cola Company. Yeah. Let's see where that takes us, but it is an important part of the innovation considerations. Thank you, Fintan.
Thank you.
Thank you. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. Now we're going to take our next question. It comes line of Edward Mundy from Jefferies. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Morning, Zoran. Morning, Anastasis. My first question is really around as you go into a slightly more challenging COGS environment in 2027, to what extent does your richer portfolio today and your stronger RGM toolkit, especially given AI, to what extent does that give you more confidence in your ability to navigate a tougher COGS environment? That's my first question.
Good morning, Ed. Look, I firmly believe that the quality and the breadth of the portfolio that we've been developing under our 24/7 vision and strategy umbrella is really putting us in a good place to provide types of beverages and in the occasions that consumers need. Equally important with well-selected and capabilities behind which we are doing continuous investments and constant development. With everything that we've been going through over the last number of years, we've seen that that combination and blend of a great portfolio and strong capabilities really helps us to go through all types of weather, no matter what happens. I'm very confident that no matter what happens in 2027, that we have necessary skills and knowledge to really go through whatever 2027 brings.
I think you mentioned AI. I want to emphasize that AI is something that we, as Coca-Cola HBC, has been investing behind and working now for several years. Pushing ourselves to really see where it really matters and where is the most meaningful place in our business. Today it's easy to get distracted just to do something in AI, but we try to really push ourselves to be focused and disciplined.
That's why also in-house, we have our own AI and Digital Innovation Council, which Naya leads and Mourad, our Chief Digital and Technology Officer, co-leads, exactly so that business and Digital & Technology function are working together behind prioritized areas where we really want to focus our efforts, all with the intention that we see how we can connect closer and faster with customers, for digital engagement, using AI for our own teams across all the functions, to increase productivity and efficiency, but also how to complement all our employees, in the way how they work, and improve decision quality with blending AI and also data insights and analytics.
Overall, this helps how we run the business to be faster, smarter, and more responsible.
Thanks, Zoran. My second question is that you've just delivered best part of 6% volume growth in the second quarter, quite a lot ahead of your medium-term run rate. Clearly, you've had FIFA in there. There's been a lot of innovation. There's been some good weather. You're clearly already thinking about how you're going to cycle that as you go into 2027, but what gives you excitement as you look to 2027 and how you cycle this very, very strong period of growth? As part of that same question, how do you ensure that the business remains focused on the core as you integrate CCBA at the same time?
Look, every year, there is always something to think, okay, how do we do more and better every year? That starts from doing better every single day. Now, we already have very good discussions with our partners, both with The Coca-Cola Company in Europe and in Africa, about the programs for next year. I'm very pleased that we are not in shortage of the ideas and programs that we will leverage next year, across key pillars, which are food occasions, which are super important for our consumers, music, sports, in a number of places. We see lots of things, with which I'm sure we are going to create another set of strong plans.
The second part of the question was? Just remind me.
How do you ensure that the core remains strong whilst you're also integrating a big business like CCBA?
Yeah, clearly. Look, while the regulatory process is continuing, we are working intensively on the integration planning, where our functional teams are working with the teams from CCBA on the things that we can do before the closing happens. Secondly, also, CCBA is a company that is really running well, so we see that the opportunity will be that we are going to be a tailwind to really help those teams that are already working on the ground. I can say, Ed, we just finished one tour that a couple of us went in South Africa, Tanzania, and Ethiopia where we wanted to learn more firsthand from the local teams together with CCBA team.
We came back really encouraged with the level of opportunities and what local teams were presenting to us, just reiterating that our key role will be how to put more fuel in the engine, how to provide more tailwind investments and learnings and capability developments. I believe that with the strength of the talent that we have in the company, that we are well-positioned, and we do have capacity and capability to do that from the moment CCBA comes into portfolio.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. The question comes line of Aron Adamski from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Thank you. I just wanted to follow up on activation investments. Looking ahead to 2027, should we expect the higher level of marketing investment to continue? Or is there scope for the ratio to moderate as you lap a particularly busy 2026 pipeline? In other words, I was wondering, was the ramp-up we saw in H1 a one-off related to a very busy calendar or is this a new baseline? Thank you.
Hi, Aron. Look, in our marketing investments, which have stepped up in line with our strategy and with the programs that we had with partners, there were some elements which were more one-off, like Winter Olympics and FIFA World Cup. However, we have seen the step up of the marketing investments in this year, which will be the case for the full year. We will see more increased level of marketing investments going forward, but they will be tailored, and they will be relevant to the programs that we are going to do for the next year, and we will be able to talk more about that soon as we get very soon into 2027.
That's very clear. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Dear speakers, there are no further questions for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management team for any closing remarks.
Well, thank you, operator. I just want to thank everyone for taking the part in the call and the interest and a good conversation. Thank you very much and wishing you all a very good day.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now all disconnect. Have a nice day.