The beverage giant Coca-Cola has announced a price increase for all of its products starting in September. In addition to soft drinks, iced tea, spritzers, energy drinks and water are also affected.
Anyone who likes to drink Coca-Cola, Fanta and Sprite will soon be disappointed: The beverage manufacturer Coca-Cola has announced that it will be raising the purchase prices for all products from September. Florian von Salzen, Managing Director of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Germany, told the “Bild” newspaper: “The price adjustment is on average in the single-digit percentage range for all products and packages.”
As “Bild” reports, citing insiders, the price increase is closer to nine percent than three percent. In addition to soft drinks, iced tea, spritzers, energy drinks and water from the Coca-Cola Group are also affected. The company's brands also include Lift, Vio, Apollinaris, Mezzomix and Powerade.
Coca-Cola, meanwhile, only determines the conditions for retailers – not the prices in the store. Nevertheless, these could rise significantly in individual cases.
A Hamburg drinks retailer reported to Bild that in future it could charge 19.99 euros for a crate of twelve one-litre reusable bottles – plus a deposit. Coca-Cola, however, said in response to the newspaper's query that this would actually happen was “unusual” – but it could not be ruled out.
The non-discounted shelf price for a case of Coca-Cola in the drinks trade is between 14 and 17 euros. However, retailers are also relying on limited special offers of less than ten euros. One thing is clear: there will be such promotions from September onwards. After all, retailers are counting on customers coming into the store because of such promotions – and in the best case, buying more products.
There are many reasons for the current price increase. Coca-Cola manager Von Salzen pointed to increased investment expenditure. “In addition, some costs, such as for ingredients, packaging materials and services, are still high,” the manager continued. “We recently rewarded the performance of our employees with a significant pay increase.”
At the end of last year, a Coca-Cola spokesperson told t-online that production costs had recently increased. Ingredients, packaging materials and intermediate products cost more than before. In addition, there were price increases for energy, which was particularly noticeable in energy-intensive industries such as the beverage company's glass bottle manufacturers, it was said at the time.