Soft-drink volume up, profits down at Coca-Cola

NEW YORK: Soft-drink giant Coca-Cola Co reported a drop of 10 per cent in first-quarter profits Tuesday, citing costs to restructure its German distribution.

Profits were $1.35 billion, or 58 cents per share, compared to $1.5 billion, or 64 cents per share, in the same period of 2008. The extra costs in Coke's German operations pared off what would have been an additional 7 cents per share.

Worldwide, the firm's volume of drinks sold was up 2 percent despite the global recession, but revenue dipped 2.8 per cent to $7.17 billion.