Coca-Cola Company Barclays 19th Annual Global Consumer Conference

I am pleased to welcome Henrique Braun back to the stage, this time as CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. Since you were last with us in Boston, the company's delivered stronger evidence of balanced growth, some tangible proof points around the system's digital capabilities, and a clearer sense of where you may look to dial up the strategy from here with you now in the role. Welcome back. Thank you. Looking back at the past few months, how have you been spending your time now in your new capacity as CEO?

Thank you, Lauren. It's great to be back here. Look, it has been a smooth transition, very well planned. I have been spending time where it's really necessary for this first month. I've been in the system for 30 years. I think for people that don't know that, it's important to highlight. A great portion of my time is meeting the stakeholders, right? Being with the key customers, then with our bottlers, our teams, and that has been really important because, on the short term, the number one job, it's really keeping the momentum that we built over the last few years together. I have been part of this with James' leadership, but being part of the leadership team as well. We're protecting and continuing that momentum.

On the long term, connected to what I said at the beginning of the year, it is really about starting to get a few laps into this journey of really reinforcing the three beliefs that I talked in the beginning of the year and the three principles that we believe are going to be important for the next chapter of growth, which is staying close to the consumer, really bringing digital to every point of interaction with consumer, customers, and enterprise, and nurturing that mindset of constructively discontent. So that is how I am spending my time.

Okay, great. At CAGNY, you laid out the three priorities for the next chapter of growth for The Coca-Cola Company. I want to spend a little bit of time unpacking these and starting first with becoming even more consumer centric.

Yeah. As you spent more time as CEO, how has your thinking evolved on what consumer centricity needs to mean for The Coca-Cola Company today?

Yeah. I often say that the consumer centricity, it is actually an ongoing capability. What I mean by that, it is not a destination, so you never really get there. You are always evolving. Being closer to consumer, it is about using everything that you have at your fingertips, and today, with digital tech and AI, to really be open to the insights that are happening in the marketplace, either us as The Coca-Cola Company or the bottlers, our customers. But that opportunity that we have of being a global business that generates 2.2 billion servings a day, we have a point of contact, physical point of contact with the consumers that cannot be neglected, and that can be transformed into a huge opportunity for us to be closer to them.

We are paying a lot of attention on how these data points now generate the right insights for us to move into the four Is that I have talked, that is so important for this connectivity with the consumer, which is insights first, that generates the right innovation with the right intimacy by market, and finally, the integration with digital along. We have done a very good job with the FIFA World Cup, integrating the four Is. Most recently, one that I love is the Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, which is a redesign of a zero version that we had already with the consumers. But as the consumers started to dial during the day the caffeine intake or the energy pickup that they need and less towards the evening, we thought that would be a great opportunity.

The European team actually got that insight and translated that into a very unique package with black and gold design, and that has been doing really well. It is a great indication of following the consumer and now accelerating an opportunity that can travel the world as well.

Okay, great. Let us stick with the consumer. During earnings, you described the global consumer backdrop as uneven. Pressure in some markets- Yeah resilience in others.

From where you sit, how would you characterize the state of the consumer today, and what are you doing differently to make sure the company keeps winning with consumers?

Yeah when they spend? It hasn't changed, actually, from the last time that we were together talking about it a few months ago.

Continues to be uneven, very dynamic all over the world, which then reemphasizes what we also have been fully aligned with our bottlers in working to provide the consumer the choices that they value, that they actually see that being worth it choosing in an environment where the low income consumers continue to be pressured. That doesn't happen in the U.S. only. It happens in different parts of the world. You need to provide affordability options to meet the consumer where they are. In that case, with the low-income consumers, looking at the daily disposable income that they have designated to beverages, what is the choice that you have for them? Equally important, it's the premiumization part of this revenue growth management opportunities.

To that extent, market by market, we have, in the algorithm, a portfolio that taps into that opportunity. In the U.S., we have Core Power, for example, on a category-wise that plays in there. Or the premium packages like the multi-pack mini cans in the retail segments. Innovations that can help you with the premiumization. This, market by market, is evolving and helping us to be closer to the consumer without letting go a huge opportunity that's still out there for consumers that are less sensitive to pricing, and that want to continue to connect with the brands that they love in the need states that they need to carry on during the day.

Okay. One of the clearest investor debates over the last year has been whether Coke can move back toward more balanced growth between volume and price mix- Yep without sacrificing the quality of that growth.