And so that has been an objective of ours. It’s not going to happen every quarter because quarters are very lumpy but it is part of the way we see our strategy.
Operator: Our next question comes from Robert Ottenstein from Evercore ISI.
Robert Ottenstein: Great. James, in the past, you’ve talked that — Coca-Cola Company has talked about moving the consumer from more commodity packs to the more that, I think you call them incident packs or the higher value-added packs, I’d love to get a sense and maybe we just focus on the U.S. of where you are in that journey, how much room there is to improve mix and is this something that you can do in a weaker economic environment where the consumer is also looking for more affordability and value options.
James Quincey: Sure. Thanks, Robert. Look, I absolutely think there’s a tremendous opportunity in the U.S. marketplace to leverage greater pack diversity. We’re not capturing all the opportunities that are there. And the leveraging of greater pack diversity actually helps in an environment where, as you have in the U.S. at the moment where certain segments of consumers feel under disposable income pressure and would look for more affordable options. And yet, there are plenty of segments either in terms of their income or in terms of the channels they’re going and spending in who are more disposed for premium options. So the marketplace offers the opportunity of greater segmentation and diversity of packaging. We have more that we can do in the marketplace in the U.S., whether it be on the nature and the range of the can sizes and shapes or the PET bottles.
So I think there’s plenty of runway in the U.S. to continue to leverage packaging diversity to satisfy consumer needs and to deliver on the RGM equations that we have the opportunity for in the U.S. And ultimately, you could look at other parts of the world, Latin America or Europe which are relatively developed cold markets and see that we do successfully use more packages there to deliver the business that the consumers want to have.
Operator: Our next question comes from Andrea Teixeira from JPMorgan.
Andrea Teixeira: So John, I appreciate your commentary about the EPS growth in 2024. And James, you said you would like to see volume growth which is obviously encouraging and in line with what you said in the last earnings call. But given the many moving pieces recently and the weaker consumer in developed markets, number one, is there anything that changed your thoughts sequentially? And two, related to the 80% of the volumes, of course, being abroad and granted that, obviously, is moving the impact of the GLP drugs, I think it would be dismissive not to ask, given investor concerns. Can you talk about how you’re proactively approaching this potential risk? Obviously, it’s similar to what you have done over the many, many years in terms of the sugar content and portion control but just curious how investors should be thinking of the tools you have at your disposal.
John Murphy: Thanks, Andrea. So on the first point, if you think about 2023 from where we were 12 months ago and what we’re guiding to for the rest of this year, it’s in an environment that has had the same kinds of ForEx headwinds and much of the volatility that I would expect to continue into the next 12 months or so. And we’ve demonstrated as we’ve both highlighted both in the script and in a number of forums, the levers that we have developed over the last few years to effectively manage through those — a period with such volatility and uncertainty; and I expect 2024 to be a similar type of year. So I would point you to many of these levers are improved marketing and innovation, the revenue growth management abilities that I think year-on-year are getting stronger and the overall execution of our system in the marketplace.
So the industry continues to be strong and we expect that to be a feature of our underlying equation for 2024 also. Regarding the second point you raised, it is an area that we are very focused on. There’s still a lot of views out there as to what impact, if any, it will have. I would offer — if you step above us and lock us — the thrust of our total beverage strategy over the last few years, that we are well positioned to provide choice and to provide options for people’s respective motivations and needs. And so we’ll continue to monitor the space but we’re confident that the total beverage strategy — 68% of our products have low or no calories today. And we continue to invest in innovation and choice to deal with whatever comes out [ph].
Operator: Our next question comes from Chris Carey from Wells Fargo Securities.
Chris Carey: I wanted to ask you a question about Coca-Cola Zero. Growth has decelerated a bit through the year against pretty exceptional unit case growth last year. So I was just wondering if you could reframe where we are with the franchise, the opportunities you see for it and if we’re perhaps reaching any thresholds just with the expansion of the offering.
James Quincey: Yes. Sure, Chris. I don’t think we’re reaching a threshold in terms of the expansion of Coke Zero. Actually, I think quite the opposite, I think there’s a vast potential for Coke Zero going forward. I think what you see in the very short term is the impact of some of the big Coke Zero markets aka Europe. They also had a very poor summer and run for a couple of months there and that makes it look like it’s dipped down in Q3. But I think Coke Zero has plenty of runway going forward and we will continue to invest behind it and are bullish on its long-term potential.
Operator: Our next question comes from Bill Chappell from Truist Securities.
Bill Chappell: Just a little bit on China and I guess, to some extent, Africa. Can you maybe — this is obviously not the first we’ve heard of the consumer being a little bit slow to bounce back. But is there anything Coca-Cola can do to accelerate that in terms of pricing or promotion? Or is it really just waiting on the market? And did you see any real changes in that consumer as the quarter progressed, where you ended the quarter with maybe a little more green shoots that things are getting better as we go into the fourth?
James Quincey: Yes. Sure, Bill. Obviously, I hate the idea of just waiting for something to happen macro economically. Certainly, it helps when there’s a tailwind from the general environment but we’re not going to wait for that. We’re very focused on investing to try and capitalize on the opportunities and restore momentum, particularly on the sparkling business and there’s a lot of RGM and execution opportunities for us to go and tackle in China. Also, we need to get cranked up and have a really strong Chinese New Year which will be in the early part of 2024. And we took a set of decisions in Q3 which created a bit of an impact on the APAC segment margin to really get focused and kind of invest ahead and make some prioritization decisions so that we can really drive the Chinese business forward, hoping that there’ll be a plus from the tailwinds of the macroeconomics but we can’t wait for that.
We need to focus on controlling what we can control and investing to drive the business.
Operator: Our next question comes from Charlie Higgs from Redburn Atlantic.
