The world’s largest Coca-Cola bottling company, Coca-Cola European Partners PLC (LON:CCEP), has made its debut on the London Stock Exchange this morning.
CCEP’s previous listing in the capital was on the Euronext London, but it has now moved to the LSE and will formally cancel its Euronext shares tomorrow (29 March).
READ: Announcement in full
The company, which also has listings in New York, Madrid and Amsterdam, said it was joining “Europe’s leading stock exchange” in order to improve its liquidity and investor access.
“We feel this is the perfect time to move our UK listing to London Stock Exchange,” said chief executive Damian Gammell.
“We have a solid track record and we operate in the large and growing Western European non-alcoholic ready to drink market, where we have a leading position with the world's best brands.”
Formed by merger of three bottlers
CCEP was formed back in 2016 when the three main Coca-Cola bottling companies in Europe merged.
Last year, the company, which is headquartered in Uxbridge, turned an operating profit of €1.6bn on sales of €11.5bn.
Like all of Coke’s bottlers, CCEP buys the syrups from The Coca-Cola Company, adds the water and fizz and bottles the drinks. It then markets and sells the products to shops and restaurants.
The firm claims to sell more than 50bn bottles of Coke, Fanta, Sprite and other Coca-Cola products every year, serving some 300mln customers.
