Mexican bottler Arca Continental on Thursday posted a first-quarter core profit that ticked up 1.2%, above forecasts but dragged down by the appreciation of the Mexican peso. Arca, which sells bottled water, soft drinks and snacks across the Americas, reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 9.66 billion pesos ($584.54 million), compared with 9.06 billion pesos forecast by analysts polled by LSEG. This brought its net profit up just 0.8% to 3.76 billion pesos from revenues that inched up 0.1% to 50.74 billion pesos compared with the year-ago period.
Mexican bottler Arca Continental said on Thursday that it plans to hike its investments by 32% year-over-year to 17 billion pesos ($1.02 billion), looking to solidify its operations across markets. Arca, Latin America's second-largest Coca-Cola bottler, will spend just over half of those funds in Mexico, its largest market.