Venues are re-opening, pushing Coke sales up 10% in Q4

Coca-Cola’s revenue rose 10% to $9.5 billion in the fourth quarter as coffee shops, movie theaters and other venues continued to reopen.

For the first time since the pandemic began, the volume of Coke products being sold for use outside of the home, exceeded the levels recorded in 2019.

The omicron variant appeared to have little impact in the quarter outside of Australia. The World Heath Organization named omicron as a variant of concern in late November.

Coke said its coffee sales volumes grew 17% in the October-December period as its Costa coffee shops reopened in the United Kingdom. Sports drinks rose 18% thanks to strong growth for Bodyarmor. Coke, which has had a 15% share in Bodyarmor since 2018, bought full control of the brand for $5.6 billion in November.

Net income jumped 66% to $2.4 billion. Earnings, adjusted for one-time items, fell 5% to 45 cents per share.

That was better than Wall Street expected. Industry analysts had projected earnings of 41 cents per share on revenue of $8.98 billion, according to FactSet.

Rival PepsiCo also reported better-than-expected fourth quarter results Thursday.

Pepsi’s net revenue grew 12% to $25.2 billion, better than the $24 billion Wall Street was anticipating. Adjusted earnings per share of $1.53 was a penny ahead of forecasts.

Pepsi said its North American profit took a hit from increased commodity and transportation costs.

Shares of the The Coca-Cola Co. rose more than 1% before the opening bell. PepsiCo’s shares were flat.