Coca-Cola is still trying to figure out how to get its big sports drink acquisition to mesh with its homegrown star.
The company has been working to integrate BodyArmor — which Coca-Cola fully controls following a $5.6 billion deal in 2021 — with its Powerade brand.
- The company’s sports drinks segment grew 1% over the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to the same period the year prior.
- Overall, company revenues hit $10.1 billion in the quarter, up 7% year-over-year.
- Operating income rose 24% to $2.1 billion.
The company’s stock has been essentially flat from the start of the week, rising slightly before Tuesday’s earnings release and then giving back those gains.
Double Team
“We need to get that double act working well,” Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey told the Wall Street Journal, referring to Powerade and BodyArmor. “We had some hiccups in ’22 as we brought those two things together, so we need to do better.”
The two brands have been brought under the same wing within the company, and each is planning a major marketing push.
“It’s not atypical that when you buy a smaller company and bring it over that there’s some disruption in the short term,” Quincey said. “There was certainly more than we would have liked or expected. And now we have to kind of reset ourselves.”
