According to the company's CEO, such a move is necessary to compensate for rising production costs.
CEO James Quincy, in an interview with CNBC, said that the company does not expect any major difficulties throughout 2021, but production costs, in particular utility costs and the cost of raw materials, will increase next year. And this will inevitably lead to the fact that prices for products will also rise in order to compensate for the process of rising costs.
If prices in 2022 are Coca-Cola and other brands of the company will indeed rise, this will be the first price increase for the brand since 2018. Then the prices were raised due to the growth of tariffs for the use of aluminum in production.
At the same time, Quincy promised that the company will take into account the interests of consumers and will carefully weigh all the nuances of increasing the cost of drinks, including varying package sizes and thinking through options for price offers. While it is not exactly reported which products of the brand will increase in price, this will be announced later.
Regarding the size packages, then in connection with the Coca-Cola pandemic, like its main competitor Pepsi, began to offer wholesale options with a large container size to attract buyers who stock up and try to buy less often, but in large quantities.
Going forward, however, as the crisis eases, shoppers should expect smaller cans and bottles of cola. In this way, companies will be able to leave the appearance of the previous prices per can or bottle of drink, while actually raising the cost per unit of volume.
Earlier, on April 19, the company announced its results for the first fiscal quarter of 2021, reporting revenue of $9.02 billion and net income of $2.25 billion. After the publication of financial reports, shares of Coca-Cola rose in price by a little less than 1%.