[Young journalist Seoyoon Jung] Coca Cola had announced their quarterly results, which did not meet the expectations due to the spread of health trend, and the weakened customer consumption. While the demand for sweetened drinks had decreased, the sugar - free products had fastly grown, showing the change of customer spending patterns, clearly.

Coca cola had announced on the 11th(local time), that fourth quarter - sales last year had increased by 2% compared to the same period a year before, reaching 11.82 billion dollars

Sales have continued to increase, but the results had not achieved the market expectations. This result, that Coca cola hasn’t met the market expectation, was a first miss in about 5 years.

The main reason for the weak sales is because of the decline in carbonated drinks’ demand. During the same time, total growth of sales had increased by 1%, and carbonated drink consumptions had shown overall weakness in major markets in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Health policies and regulatory movements of the United States have also become a burden. Some states had begun to limit the purchase of carbonated drinks in food supporting programmes for low - income families, and concern over the health effects of sugar and corn syrup is growing. Mexico has also raised its sugar tax, strengthening the limitations of the consumptions.

Analysis shows that spread of weight-loss drugs, inflation, tariffs, and other economic issues, have shrunk the traditional consumers of carbonated drinks. Coca Cola has introduced small sized products with lower prices, but this product also couldn’t increase the annual sales.

However, drinks like zero sugar carbonated drinks, water, sports drinks, coffee, tea, have shown growth. In particular, Coca Cola zero has shown double - digit growth, showing that customers are more interested in products with a strong health image.

In the market, this result of Coca Cola is seen as a change of customer consumption trend. Along with the strong health awareness, there are expectations that the competition of global drink market could be changed rapidly.

▶원문 기사: "건강 바람에 탄산 흔들"…코카콜라, 5년 만에 실적 쇼크
  

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