⚠ Scale Cannot Outrun a Strong DollarModerate threat

Coca-Cola's global scale is a moat, but it comes bundled with a chronic financial exposure that scale does nothing to solve: the company earns the majority of its revenue and profit outside the United States, in dozens of currencies, yet reports its results in dollars. When the dollar strengthens — as it has for long stretches — the reported value of all that foreign earning shrinks, and healthy local-currency growth can translate into flat or declining dollar results. In several recent years, currency has been a multi-point headwind to reported revenue and earnings, entirely outside the company's control.

This is the shadow side of being a global champion. The same international reach that provides the growth frontier also means the results are perpetually buffeted by exchange rates, and the emerging markets that offer the most volume growth are often the ones with the most volatile and depreciation-prone currencies. Coca-Cola hedges and prices to offset some of this, and over very long periods currency swings roughly wash out. But in any given year the strong dollar can overwhelm the operating performance in the reported numbers, making the business look weaker than it is — and reminding investors that a globe-spanning franchise — +5% organic against +2% reported in FY2025 is the currency gap made visible¹ — is also a globe-spanning bet on currencies no amount of scale can steer.