Pushkala Aripaka and Priyanshi Mendhan

(Reuters] -Coca Cola HBC is increasing marketing investments next year, Zoran Bogdanovic, chief executive, said Wednesday. The bottler had posted higher third-quarter revenues as customers returned to pubs and restaurants.

The company, which is based in Switzerland said that because of high input cost pressures, they will increase prices slightly for the fourth quarter as well as 2022.

This company was one of many Coca-Cola (NYSE) Co franchisees around the world. During the height of the pandemic, the hotel business closed, and the wholesale sales of Coca-Cola fell.

However, volume growth was steady with an increase of 13.1% in the three-months ending September. This is due to HBC’s investment in e-commerce. Revenues also benefited from price increases on most markets.

HBC’s Out-of-Home channel is responsible for almost 40% of the total revenue.

Bogdanovic stated that he has been increasing (investments in marketing) this year because last year’s key factor was decreased. He did not quantify the investment.

An increase in COVID-19 case reports has forced countries to tighten their controls. HBC however hopes increased marketing will drive more demand, and higher prices will allow it to navigate “aftershocks”.

Bogdanovic claimed that the price hikes have not affected consumer demand.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ 🙂 and Coca Cola were forced to increase their costs by a number of factors including disruptions in global supply chains, increased demand and labour shortages.

HBC reported third quarter sales of 2.12 Billion Euros ($2.46 Billion), which is well over analysts’ expectations of 2.04 Billion euros and 1.83Billion euros.

Coca-Cola USA holds about 23% in the company.

($1 = 0.8636 euros)