Venues begin to re-open, pushing Coca-Cola's sales up 10% in Quarter 4

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

The Atlanta beverage giant said the fourth quarter was the first time since the pandemic that away-from-home sales volumes exceeded 2019 levels.

The omicron variant appeared to have little impact in the quarter outside of Australia. The World Heath Organisation 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.