Manuel Arroyo, international vice chairman of Coca-Cola: “We are the exception: we continue to grow in very difficult years for mass consumption” | Companies | EUROtoday

The highest-ranking Spanish govt at Coca-Cola, Manuel Arroyo, govt vice chairman and international advertising and marketing director of the gentle drinks large, highlighted this Friday in Madrid the corporate’s development capability lately, regardless of the inflationary impacts which have shaken your entire meals and beverage sector.

In an occasion organized by the Spanish Confederation of Directors and Executives (CEDE), Arroyo defined that, particularly, “the last two years have been very complicated for the entire mass consumption sector, with everything that is happening on a global scale, and how inflation is affecting different groups of consumers.”

In this sense, the manager, who has not referred to the present battle within the Middle East and its potential penalties, acknowledges that every one firms working on this sector “have had many difficulties in growing through a good balance between volume and prices lately.” ”The overwhelming majority haven’t been capable of develop within the final two years when it comes to quantity, they’ve even decreased,” he pressured. But not so Coca-Cola, Arroyo pressured: “We are the exception, we continue to grow, we are going to continue growing, and that is what is behind our numbers.”

In 2025, Coca-Cola Company reached a turnover of 47.9 billion {dollars}, about 41.35 billion euros on the present alternate price, 2% greater than the earlier yr and virtually 5% at an natural stage, that’s, with out bearing in mind adjustments in its perimeter. Of that share, the most important contribution was resulting from value will increase, though Coca-Cola additionally recorded a slight enchancment in volumes.

“In the last 10 years we have grown at an average annual rate of 7%. And the beverage sector has not grown more than 6% in that period,” highlighted Arroyo, who shared the 4 “fundamental” pillars of the corporate’s revenue technology: advertising and marketing and model administration; improvements in merchandise, packaging and gross sales terminals; income optimization via value administration by container and channels; and built-in execution by the almost 200 bottlers with which the corporate works worldwide.

With all this, the beverage group already has 32 manufacturers, out of a portfolio of almost 200, which alone have a turnover of greater than 1 billion {dollars} yearly. “The Coca-Cola brand already generates less than half of the sales. Juices, waters, teas, sports drinks… The scope is very broad,” defined Arroyo, who has summarized the classes of the beverage sector that generate the best development in 4: gentle drinks, primarily cola; espresso, teas and power. “They all have in common that they are stimulants. The organ of the human body that consumes the most energy is the brain, and when one spends between 7 and 12 hours a day with a screen, it leads to resorting to drinks to manage their energy level,” he reasoned.

Regarding the longevity of the Coca-Cola model, with 140 years of historical past, and its challenges to stay related, Arroyo factors to the relevance of “respecting the heritage.” “If you don’t focus on who you are, what your DNA is, what you represent or what you mean to people, it’s a bad start. Sometimes many marketing directors don’t spend enough time understanding that key,” he thought of. All of this, along with combining the sense of evolution: “If you don’t update something that was born 140 years ago to a social and cultural reality that has changed, you are going to stop growing.”

Spanish DNA in Coca-Cola

Manuel Arroyo, who admits spending two-thirds of the yr away from residence, is the highest-ranking Spanish govt at Coca-Cola, however not the one one with essential tasks within the firm. Luisa Ortega has been president for Europe for a number of months. “Spanish talent has had a strong presence in many departments for several decades. It is the result of being a successful business at a national level, with good practices, which has generated demand from other company executives in other parts of the world for Spanish talent,” Arroyo summarized. He considers that Spain “continues to be one of the main markets in the world, it has traditionally been one of the most successful for the company.”

The govt, in control of advertising and marketing for a corporation that has gained international relevance due to this software, has additionally analyzed the adjustments in Coca-Cola’s funding in picture. Traditional media already characterize lower than 30% of the corporate’s expenditure, which has poured its assets into digital platforms. “We were the first company in modern economic history to advertise on television and radio. But not to adopt the digital world,” Arroyo mentioned.

“Digital technology has redefined media consumption and that requires a radically different type of marketing,” mentioned the supervisor, who has additionally highlighted the relevance of selling experiential advertising and marketing, exterior of the screens. “There is a great battle in the world for people’s attention. And with five-second content, it is more unlikely to capture it than with a Coldplay concert. Many advertisers are beginning to see that they have to rebalance their investments to longer formats, where attention is focused on the content,” he famous.

Regarding the affect of synthetic intelligence on enterprise, Arroyo has acknowledged that it presents “a great opportunity.” “It is a very transformative tool, generating efficiency and exponential effectiveness, which helps our teams work at unseen levels of excellence,” he described. “Many of the marketing processes have been transformed. All companies will have access to the same technology, but the differential will be the human contribution,” he concluded.