Dive Brief:

• Coca-Cola Consolidated CFO F. Scott Anthony will retire from the company effective Mar. 31, according to a company press release and securities filing.
• The largest Coca-Cola bottler in the U.S., Coca-Cola Consolidated will tap Matthew Blickley, its senior vice president for financial planning & analysis and chief accounting officer, to serve as Anthony’s successor, according to the filing. Blickley will assume the role effective April 1 and will also continue to serve as the company’s CAO, Coca-Cola Consolidated said.
• The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company, which provides bottling services for more than 300 brands, “intends to engage Mr. Anthony as a consultant following his retirement to assist with various matters related to the transition of his responsibilities,” it said in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Dive Insight:

A long-time alum of the Coca-Cola system of companies, Anthony took the top financial seat at Coca-Cola Consolidated in December 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile. His previous roles include a seven-year stint as CFO for Ventura Foods. Anthony also held various roles for Coca-Cola Enterprises — which sold its North American business to the Coca-Cola Company in 2010 — during a 15-year tenure with the company, including as its VP, CFO for the Americas and as its VP of investor relations and planning.

His successor Blickley joined Coca-Cola Consolidated in 2014 and has served as its SVP of FP&A and CAO since August 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to joining Coca-Cola, he served a three-year tenure at Family Dollar in roles including DVP, FP&A, and started his career at Big Four accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The bottler did not specify Blickley’s compensation as CFO in its Friday filing. In 2023, his predecessor Anthony received total compensation of approximately $2.7 million as finance chief, including a base salary of $594,347 and a bonus of $350,000, according to the company’s latest proxy filing.

The financial leadership swap comes nine months after the company announced a stock buyback program in May 2024, aiming to purchase up to $3.1 billion of its common stock via both “a modified ‘Dutch auction’ tender offer for up to $2.0 billion of its Common Stock and a separate share purchase agreement with The Coca‑Cola Company,” the bottler said at the time.

“We believe this is an ideal time to leverage the strength of our balance sheet by taking on a prudent amount of debt to return cash to stockholders and build long-term value,” Chairman and CEO J. Frank Harrison III said in a statement at the time. Shortly after announcing the buyback, the bottler raised $1.2 billion in the blue-chip bond market in order to purchase the stock, marking “the first time the company has tapped the investment-grade dollar debt market with a public offering since 2015,” according to Bloomberg data.

The company followed up the buyback program with the announcement of a $1 billion share repurchase program in August, according to a release at the time, with CEO Harrison noting “the progress we’ve made improving our profitability and strengthening our balance sheet allows us to reinvest in our business,” per a statement.

Coca-Cola Consolidated has seen steady growth over its past several quarters as it continues to improve its profitability. For its most recent quarter ended Sept. 27, the beverage bottling company reported $698 million in gross profit, a 5.5% increase from the prior year period, according to its earnings report. Net sales rose 3.1% to reach $1.8 billion for the quarter.

Coca-Cola Consolidated declined to comment beyond the details in their press release and filing.