DRINKS giant Coca-Cola saw revenues climb by almost 9 per cent within its Northern Ireland bottling operation last year, but the company felt the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020, according to a new report.
Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (HBC) has operated in Lisburn for 80 years, serving the whole-island market.
The latest financial report filed with Companies House show it recorded a turnover of £232.1 million for the year ending December 31 2019.
Operating profits increased marginally to £16.4m, but pre-tax profits fell 25 per cent on 2018.
The £8.7m pre-tax profit figure for 2019 was still above its 2017 performance of £8.1m, with the 2018 figure of £11.5m seemingly inflated by £4.5m income from shares in group undertakings.
Coca-Cola HBC’s workforce at Knockmore Hill increased again last year to 457.
Around 500 people had been employed at the plant three years ago, but cuts in distribution staff took the figure down to 434 in 2017.
In February, Coca-Cola announced a £9m investment in the Lisburn operation to increase can production.
While the latest report covers the performance of the operation during 2019, it acknowledges the impact of Covid-19 in the current year.
It states that after a strong start to 2020, Coca-Cola felt the hit from the closure of bars, restaurants and hotels at the end of March. The volume of sales did however increase in supermarkets.
The report states the company “immediately retrenched the business to the degree possible in order to minimize the negative financial impact of Covid-19 on the business while ensuring that security of tenure was offered to all employees through the crisis”.
