Embotelladora Andina S.A. Pfd. A

What it is

Embotelladora Andina, together with its subsidiaries, produces, bottles, commercialises, and distributes Coca-Cola trademark beverages in Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. Beyond Coca-Cola, the firm also markets and distributes brands including Monster, Heineken, AB InBev, Diageo, and Capel.

It is the largest Coca-Cola licensee in Chile and one of the three largest Coca-Cola bottlers in Latin America. Founded in 1946, its core business is the production, packaging, and distribution of non-alcoholic beverages.

Who owns it

Control rests with a shareholder pact of four Chilean families — Said Handal, Garcés Silva, Said Somavía, and Chadwick Claro — who together hold approximately 43% of the company’s total shares. The controlling Series A shares elect 12 of the company’s 14 board directors.

By the company’s own statutes, the publicly traded Series B shares receive 10% more in dividends than the controlling Series A shares — a deliberate design to reward open-market investors more generously for the liquidity they provide. The remaining shares trade freely on the Santiago exchange and as ADRs on the NYSE.

Who runs it

Gonzalo Said Handal serves as chairman of the board, with José Antonio Garcés Silva as vice-chairman — both appointed at the board session of 30 April 2024. Three independent directors — Gonzalo Parot Palma, Juan Gerardo Jofré Miranda, and Domingo Cruzat Amunátegui — sit on the statutory Directors’ Committee.

Day-to-day operations are led by Miguel Ángel Peirano, who holds the title of Executive Vice-President. Andrés Wainer serves as Corporate Finance Manager, and Paula Vicuña leads investor relations.

The money, in plain words

In the full year 2024, Andina reported to the CMF a net profit of CLP 232,663 million (≈ USD 254 million) — up 35.7% from 2023 — on sales of CLP 3,224,233 million (≈ USD 3.52 billion), themselves 23.1% higher than the year before. That means it keeps about 7.2 cents of profit from every peso of revenue — a net profit margin of 7.2% — decent for a physical bottling business that hauls glass and liquid across four countries (our calculation).

The operating cash flow cushion — measured as adjusted EBITDA — reached CLP 578,192 million (≈ USD 631 million), up 23% year on year. Sales volumes rose 8.2%, reaching 268.7 million unit cases — so the earnings jump came from both selling more and charging more per case.

For investors holding the Series A shares, the dividend yield sits around 5.18% — a meaningful cash return by any standard.

What it is doing now

For 2025 the company has budgeted capital spending of roughly USD 240 million, a substantial share earmarked for returnable packaging infrastructure and, in Brazil, a new mineral-water production line plus a multi-category line in Duque de Caxias designed to produce beer and other products. In Paraguay, a new returnable glass-bottle line is planned.

In 2024, Andina opened the Re-Ciclar plant in Chile — an investment of close to USD 35 million capable of recycling 350 million bottles a year — to produce food-grade recycled resin for use in its own bottles from 2025 onwards. The company also signed a commitment with the Science Based Targets initiative to set formal emissions-reduction targets for 2030.

What to watch

• Argentina’s currency. Argentina is an officially hyperinflationary economy under IFRS rules, meaning the whole year’s Argentine results are translated into Chilean pesos at the year-end exchange rate — a single policy decision in Buenos Aires can swing reported group profits significantly.
• Brazil volume. Brazil drove much of the 2024 gain, with volume up 12.9% and net revenue in that segment rising 22% (in Chilean pesos). Whether that momentum holds as Brazilian consumers face higher interest rates is the key swing factor.
• Returnable packaging. Andina is already one of the world’s leading bottlers by returnable-bottle rate — 45.3% in Argentina, 40% in Paraguay, 39.8% in Chile, and 23.3% in Brazil. Expanding that proportion cuts material costs and supports the company’s sustainability targets simultaneously.
• Ownership pact stability. With four Chilean families sharing control through Series A voting shares, any change in the pact — as occurred when the Hurtado Berger family stepped back from control in 2020 — can move the share price quickly.

This is news, not investment advice.