A Northern Ireland bottling franchise of giant soft drinks maker Coca-Cola had turnover of £335.8 million (€402million) in 2023, up by 15.3 per cent from its turnover of £291.2 million the year before, new accounts show.
More than half of that turnover was from the sale of soft drinks in the UK, totalling £175.9 million, with the remaining £159.8 million related to intercompany sales to other Coca-Cola companies in the Republic of Ireland.
The company also paid dividends totalling £25.9 million to its Swiss parent company, compared to £26.6 million the year before.
Coca-Cola HBC Northern Ireland employed 482 employees at the end of 2023 and had a total wage bill of £31.5 million.
I’m in my 70s and have €500,000 in savings. If I need to go into a nursing home, what happens if I run out of money?
Microsoft emphasises commitment to Ireland, which can ‘count on us’
Cost of our climate inaction laid bare in new report
Ireland faces EU bill of up to €26bn if it misses climate targets
Its directors were paid £715,919 in total, with the highest paid director getting an aggregate package of £236,759.
The company’s pre-tax profit was £43.6 million, compared to £37.6 million the year before, and its accumulated profits stood at £113.8 million, compared to £101 million the year before. It paid tax of £3.8 million, compared to £2.4 million the year before.
It had stocks worth £10.7, made up of ingredients and finished goods, and its debtors owed it £68.1 million, of which £28.8 million was from related entities within the Coca Cola group.
In turn it owed its creditors nearly £194 million, including nearly £130 million owed to other entities within the group, £14.2 million to trade creditors, and £27.1 million in accruals.
The company valued its tangible assets at £269.4 million, including £103.2 worth of buildings, land, plant and equipment, and £166.2 million worth of investments in subsidiary companies.
That subsidiary company is Coca-Cola HBC Ireland Limited, which had turnover in 2022 of €284.2 million, accounts showed. It had a pre-tax profit that year of €32 million.
The Coca-Cola Company is a shareholder in Coca-Cola HBC, the parent company of the bottling franchise, with 21 per cent of its shares. Separately, Coca-Cola also has a number of wholly owned subsidiaries in Ireland, most notably European Refreshments Unlimited Company. Recent accounts for European Refreshments showed it had turnover of €6.1 billion in 2023, up from €5.5 billion the previous year. The company had a pre-tax profit of €2.1 billion, compared to €1.4 billion the year before. It had a tax bill of €356.1 million.
Accounts for the company also show that the Drogheda-based subsidiary paid a dividend of €2.7 billion dividend to a subsidiary in the Cayman Islands, which is the largest payment the company has made to date.
Since 2016, European Refreshments Unlimited Company, the Irish subsidiary, has sent €12.2 billion in dividends to the Cayman Islands.
The drinks maker has been accused of hiding “astronomical” profits by US tax authorities, which has emerged as part of Coca-Cola’s decade-long dispute with the Internal Revenue Service, the US tax authority, over $16 billion in back taxes, which it has been accused of hiding offshore by using a variety of jurisdictions, including Ireland.
This story was updated on October 17th, 2024 to reflect that Coca-Cola HBC Northern Ireland is a franchise rather than a subsidiary of Coca-Cola
- Sign up for the Business Today newsletter and get the latest business news and commentary in your inbox every weekday morning
- Opt in to Business push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Our Inside Business podcast is published weekly – Find the latest episode here