Dive Brief:
- Coca-Cola Enterprises, which bottles and distributes Coke products in Western Europe, has lowered its expectations for sales and profit growth for the rest of the year.
- The bottler, which was spun out of the Coca-Cola Co. in 1986, said it now expects operating income and sales to reach only the low single digits.
- The company is struggling with continuing economic woes in Europe and a difficult exchange-rate environment.
Dive Insight:
No doubt analysts attending today's Barclays Back to School Consumer conference in Boston will have many questions about the news. Coca-Cola Enterprises is set to give a presentation at the conference, and the bottler's sales are widely followed as an indicator of how European consumers view the economy.