Edition: U.S. / Global

Coke Bottler Posts a Loss

Published: April 15, 1992

Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., the biggest bottler of Coca-Cola products, said today that it lost $3 million in the first quarter of 1992, its first full quarter since a merger with another major bottler.

The loss compared with net income of $7 million, or 6 cents a share, a year earlier.

Coca-Cola Enterprises merged with the Johnston Coca-Cola Bottling Group, formerly the second-largest Coca-Cola bottler, in December. The Coca-Cola Company owns 44 percent of Coca-Cola Enterprises.

If the earnings of the two bottlers were combined as if the merger had been in effect in last year's first quarter, the results would have shown a loss of $2 million. Coca-Cola Enterprises said it believed the adjusted figures provided a more accurate comparison.


Revenues in the first quarter were $1.11 billion, compared with an actual total of $890 million in the corresponding period of 1991 or a combined total of $1.14 billion.

On the New York Stock Exchange, the company's shares rose 12.5 cents, to $13.