In the second quarter of 2025, the Coca-Cola Company faced continuous changes in the external environment. By closely monitoring consumer demand, managing its brand portfolio, and deepening its comprehensive market strategy, the company achieved performance in line with its updated performance guidance. Despite facing unfavorable weather and consumer pressure, the company still achieved a 1% decrease in sales volume and a 5% increase in organic revenue, while demonstrating strong profit margin improvement. The company achieved growth in market value share in multiple markets including North America, showing its flexibility and adaptability in global scale and local execution.

Coca-Cola Company has achieved growth in market share, revenue, and profit through sustained brand investments in the face of consumer uncertainty and economic pressures. While sales have declined in some markets such as Latin America, the company has successfully implemented targeted marketing strategies such as enhancing advertising relevance, value, and affordability, as well as deepening customer cooperation, leading to sales growth in multiple product lines (such as Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Diet Coke, Fanta, Fairlife, Body Armor, and Powerade). In Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region, the company has addressed macroeconomic challenges through innovative marketing activities, product localization, channel optimization, and expansion of digital platforms, resulting in organic revenue and profit growth. Specific strategies and results in markets such as Mexico, China, India, Japan, and South Korea were highlighted, emphasizing the role of marketing transformation and innovation agendas in supporting overall growth strategies.

The company is driving transaction growth by integrating marketing expertise, digital investments, and clear sales information, with a particular emphasis on learning and applying successful experiences in different markets. This includes utilizing the strengths of Latin America to develop non-renewable water businesses in Africa and the Philippines, as well as using North American experience to promote high-end products in Europe. Additionally, the company is optimizing pricing channels through AI technology to improve market response speed and product attractiveness, while strengthening local execution capabilities globally to ensure the successful implementation of revenue growth plans. Despite the uncertain external environment, the company remains growth-oriented, continuously adjusting strategies to achieve its growth goals.

The company achieved positive growth in organic revenue in the first half of 2025, especially in a challenging business environment, with a 5% increase in organic revenue and a 4% increase in earnings per share. Although unit cases decreased by 1%, price mix grew by 6%, partly due to pricing actions of around 5 percentage points. In addition, despite facing challenges in currency positions, the company still achieved an 80 basis point increase in comparable gross margin and a 190 basis point increase in comparable operating profit margin. The improvement in financial performance is mainly attributed to productivity improvements, investment timing, and favorable cycles compared to the previous year. The company also emphasized its strong balance sheet and confidence in future cash flow generation.

The company has updated its performance guidance for 2025, expecting organic revenue growth of 5 to 6%, comparable currency-neutral EPS growth of around 8%, while facing 1 to 2 points of currency headwinds. Despite the dynamic changes in the external environment, the company has successfully responded through flexible strategies, achieving strong organic sales growth and profit improvement. The company emphasizes its agility and execution capabilities in quickly responding to market changes under the "Alltheweek" strategy to ensure sustained performance growth and shareholder value creation.

The Fair Life brand is showing strong growth momentum in the protein product market. Despite facing production constraints, it is expected that by early 2026, with the launch of a new facility in New York, this bottleneck will gradually be alleviated. The capacity of the new facility will gradually increase, and the company is also considering further expanding capacity in existing facilities to meet the growing demand. In terms of international expansion, although there are challenges, in the coming years, the Fair Life brand's plans for markets outside of North America are also being considered.

The discussion focused on the performance of the US dairy industry, especially investments in small countries and small-scale investments, as well as the significant success achieved in Santa Clara, Mexico, becoming Mexico's largest value-added dairy company. In addition, the strong market position of the Fairlife and Core Power brands was mentioned, and the willingness to continue exploring international opportunities, especially to expand the consumer advantage of these brands to other global markets.

The discussion focused on the rebound speed in the markets of Mexico and India, as well as the impact of these market changes on the second half of the fiscal year. At the same time, it was also mentioned that due to the strong profit performance in the first half of the year, there may be more investments in the second half of the fiscal year, and inquiries were made about the possible target areas for these additional investments.

The company plans to drive its business growth by enhancing the cost-effectiveness of coffee in the Mexican market, celebrating its 100th anniversary, and strengthening its marketing efforts. At the same time, despite a slight decline in Q2 performance due to weather conditions in the Indian market, the company has shown long-term confidence in the Indian market by establishing a new franchise business model and conducting marketing activities. Additionally, the company mentioned that it will reinvest some profits in growth strategies to maintain and enhance future market momentum.

After a slow start in Q1, Coca-Cola's business in the North American market saw significant recovery in Q2, showing strong revenue growth, market share, and profit. It specifically mentioned adjustments in marketing strategies for low-income groups, as well as a focus on specific consumer groups such as Hispanic consumers and the quick-service restaurant (QSR) market. In addition, it emphasized customized advertising strategies for different consumer groups and the development of new accounts in specific channels such as Costco and Carnival, demonstrating the company's proactive measures in responding to market recovery and changing consumer trends.

The conversation mentioned the company's success in marketing transformation, especially in improving the efficiency of advertising and digitization, as well as cost savings in media buying and ad production. In addition, the company also emphasized the strict management and frugal investment strategy in operating costs, which resulted in better productivity results in the first half of the year than expected.

In the second quarter, the profit margin in the North American market significantly improved, despite the increase in marketing expenses. This positive change can be attributed to multiple factors, including productivity improvement plans, slowdown in vertical integration businesses, and optimization of product and channel mix. Additionally, the company continues to increase investment in branding, innovation, and marketing promotion to drive growth and increase market share, indicating that the improvement in profit margin is achieved based on continuous investment and optimization of market strategies.

The meeting discussed the company's recent performance, especially the improvement in productivity and profit margins, while also analyzing the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations on the company's performance, particularly the performance of G10 currencies and the effectiveness of hedging strategies. The company expects to continue to achieve growth and improve profit margins in the second half of the year, although the pace may slow compared to before. Additionally, more information about the company's outlook for 2026 will be provided during the October conference call.

This conversation focused on the performance of the global consumer market, specifically mentioning that certain regions such as the ASEAN market (including Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam) showed unexpected consumer weakness in the second quarter. At the same time, there was discussion about plans to innovate products using new health sweeteners like pure cane sugar and fiber, emphasizing the importance of continuous innovation and learning in finding innovative points that match consumer demands in the constantly changing consumer preferences.

In the discussion, James confirmed that the slowing growth of the Fair Life brand is mainly due to capacity limitations rather than a decrease in market competitiveness, while expressing confidence in the brand's future growth. He also mentioned that as the brand successfully attracts the attention of competitors, the company will continue to focus on enhancing the marketing and execution of the Fair Life and Core Power brands, while anticipating development opportunities from new capacity and innovation.

The dialogue discussed the performance of the European and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) markets in the second quarter, especially focusing on consumer trends and market growth. The European market showed positive volume growth and balanced price mix growth, with consumers overall showing resilience, although low-income groups showed a demand for value and affordability. Products like Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Sprite, and Fuze Tea performed well. Africa and the Eura-Asia regions also showed good growth, especially in Coca-Cola and flavor performance, thanks to good system execution and focus on local markets.

In the discussion, the company expressed reflection on the long-term strategy of the coffee business, especially regarding the performance of brands such as Georgia and Costa in the market. The company acknowledges that the coffee industry is a large, fragmented, and constantly growing sector within the beverage industry, making it attractive. However, the investment in Costa has not met expectations, and the business still relies more on stores rather than the expected rapid growth of ready-to-drink coffee and express services. The company is reflecting on existing learnings and experiences, looking for new growth paths, while continuing to operate the Costa business to maximize returns on investment.

The discussion mainly revolves around Coca-Cola Company's business transformation, including completing the remaining portion of the business through franchising to concentrate on driving brand demand growth. The company emphasizes its continued development and innovation of top brand portfolio, as well as strengthening partnerships with global bottling partners to achieve better market execution and overall growth. Additionally, it is mentioned that further enhancing brand portfolio and market competitiveness through organic and inorganic growth strategies.

In the conversation, the company discussed its confidence in future business growth, particularly focusing on positive expectations for the second half of the year. It was mentioned that some negative factors in the second quarter are temporary and there may be a larger base comparison in the fourth quarter. The company emphasized its flexibility in investment strategy and systematic construction for long-term growth, expressing strong confidence in achieving its 2025 goals, and committing to creating sustainable value for all stakeholders.