Coca-Cola Company (The)

At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Coca-Cola Company's fourth quarter.

Good morning and thank you for joining us. I'm here with James Quincy, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Enrique Braun, our CEO-elect and Chief Operating Officer, and John Murphy, our President and Chief Financial Officer. We've posted schedules under financial information in the investors section of our company website. These reconcile certain non-GAAP financial measures that may be referred to this morning to result as reported under generally accepted accounting principles. You can also find schedules in the same section of our website that provide an analysis of our growth and operating margins. This call may contain forward-looking statements, including statements concerning long-term earnings objectives, which should be considered in conjunction with cautionary statements contained in our earnings release and in the company's periodic SEC reports. Following prepared remarks, we will take your questions. Please limit yourself to one question. Re-enter the queue to ask follow-ups. Now I will turn the call over to James.

Thanks, Robin, and good morning, everyone. Before I get started, I'd like to thank all of you for your support and collaboration over the years, from the analysts on the call to the investors who are listening to the many employees and other stakeholders who are joining us as well. Today will be my last earnings call. It's been a tremendous honor to be the CEO of this remarkable company. Coca-Cola gave me the opportunity to serve consumers, customers, and communities around the world and work alongside incredibly talented and dedicated colleagues and friends. Our company has achieved a lot over the last decade. Looking back to Cagney 2017, we set four strategic priorities. Accelerating our consumer-centric brand portfolio, strengthening our system, digitizing the enterprise, and unlocking the power of our people. And I think we've done a good job meeting those priorities. We've added $12 billion brands to our total beverage portfolio, bringing our total to $32 billion brands. 75% of our billion-dollar brands are outside our sparkling soft drinks. And while we've expanded our portfolio to offer consumers more choice, we've also reinvigorated growth of our legacy sparkling soft drink brands. Trademark Coca-Cola retail sales grew by over $60 billion, and the brand is the highest valued food and beverage brand in the world, according to Kantar, with a long, long way ahead. Alignment with our bottling partners is better than ever, and we have a clear line of sight into completing our re-franchising strategy. This work created a virtuous circle for our system with higher returns, additional investment, and further value creation. We've also taken foundational steps to digitize our system. We've made good progress connecting with consumers and customers on a more granular and personalized level. And lastly, we've built a culture that prioritized our willingness to take risks, learn through iteration, push each other, and scale successes. Our people and our growth mindset remain two of our biggest advantages. As a result of delivering on these four strategic priorities, we've had a 7% average organic revenue growth since 2017 above our long-term growth algorithm. Of the years of being stuck at around $2 comparable earnings per share, we inflicted our earnings, overcame ongoing currency headwinds, and have achieved a $3 comparable earnings per share in 2025. We also created more than $150 billion of market value for our shareholders and outperformed the consumer staples industry. Our foundation today is as strong as it's ever been. No matter how you slice it, by category, by consumer, by channel, we have immense growth opportunities ahead of us. Enrique will bring new energy to usher in our next chapter of growth, and he's particularly passionate about our brands, franchise operating model, digital engagement, and our people. We both started at the Coca-Cola company in the same year over 30 years ago, and he's been an invaluable partner to me over the past decade. He's worked across many functions and has created value for our system on every continent where we do business. The best days for our system continue to be ahead of us, and I'm confident we'll capture these opportunities under Enrique's leadership. So without further ado, I'll pass the call off to Enrique Braun, the next chief executive officer of the Coca-Cola company.