Coca-Cola’s Aussie Sales Plummet By A Third As Lockdown And Ad Freeze Bites

A large group of Coca-Cola red cans stacked in a supermarket in Spain.
B&T Magazine
By B&T Magazine



Coca-Cola Amatil has joined the list of companies attributing a decline in sales to lockdown measures.

The company has revealed sales volume declined by about 33 per cent in April compared with a year earlier.

May has seen some revival, although sales during the first three weeks of the month are still down 26 per cent compared with a year prior.

“April was a challenging trading month for the group, with the full brunt of the COVID-19 restrictions felt across all of Amatil’s markets throughout the peak Easter and Ramadan trading periods,” group managing director Alison Watkins said in a statement.

The downturn means the company will be reevaluating its next steps forward, Watkins confirmed.

“In parallel with handling the (COVID-19) situation, we are very focused in each of our businesses on what we think the longer-term resourcing shifts and potential reductions that we might need to make in our businesses are. And I think those will be different in each business,” she said.

“If there is a recessionary environment, which seems likely, we will need to respond to that and make sure that we’ve got the right level of resourcing to serve our customers, to produce our product.”

Last month, the company gave its first indication of feeling the COVID-19 pinch, revealing a 25 per cent drop in sales from January to March.
As a result, Coca-Cola management in the US revealed it will “pause sizeable marketing campaigns” and defer product development in a Q2 “shutdown”.
Ad spend would be reduced in every territory and would go “off-air” entirely in others, it was revealed.
Coke spends around $20 million a year on advertising locally and its media is handled by IPG’s UM.



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