Kathy N. Waller - The Coca-Cola Co.
Management
Thank you, and good morning, everyone. We delivered good financial results in line with our expectations with price mix and operating expense leverage driving 6% growth in underlying profit before tax. As James mentioned, we continue to refranchise our company-owned bottling operations which, together with a slight currency headwind, resulted in a 16% decline in comparable net revenues. However, adjusting for the impact of currency and those divestitures, our revenue management initiatives led to 3% organic revenue growth in the quarter with strong performance in North America, Europe and Mexico. Comparable gross margin increased over 200 basis points, reflecting the benefit from refranchising lower margin bottling businesses and strong price mix, partially offset by increased commodity costs and about a 40-basis-point currency impact. Comparable operating margin grew over 375 basis points, driven by the divestitures, the timing of SG&A expenses, and continued productivity. Moving to cash flow, we generated $2.6 billion in free cash flow year-to-date and have returned to our shareowners $1.6 billion in the form of dividends, reflecting a 6% increase in our annual dividend and $1.3 billion in net share purchases. Turning to our comparable outlook, for the full year, we expect to deliver 3% organic revenue growth and 7% to 8% growth in underlying profit before tax. In addition, we expect divestitures of company-owned bottlers to result in a five- to six-point structural headwind to profit before tax. However, due to the strengthening of several currencies, we now expect a currency headwind to profit before tax of two points, slightly better than our previous guidance of a three-point headwind. This will result in approximately a $0.02 benefit to full-year EPS. So, we now expect comparable EPS to be flat to down 2% this year as we complete the bottler refranchising process and return to a higher margin capital-light business model. As we model the third quarter, there are a few items to consider. First, we expect the net impact of acquisitions, divestitures and other structural items to be a 19- to 20-point headwind on net revenue and a nine- to ten-point headwind on profit before tax. Therefore, we also expect this to result in greater comparable growth in operating margin expansions than we saw in the first half. Second, we expect that currency will be a one- to two-point headwind on net revenues and a two- to three-point headwind on profit before tax. And then finally, as a reminder, our calendar fourth quarter will benefit from one extra day versus the prior-year period. So in summary, our performance during the first half of the year was in line with our expectations. And given that many markets remain volatile, we're maintaining our currency neutral estimate. However, with a slightly better currency environment in the back half of the year, we now expect full year comparable EPS to come in $0.02 higher than our previous guidance. Operator, we are now ready for questions.