Embotelladoras Coca-Cola Polar S.A.

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What it is

Embotelladoras Coca-Cola Polar was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Santiago, Chile. Before its merger, Coca-Cola Polar owned Coca-Cola franchise bottling rights in territories of Chile, Argentina, and Paraguay, with each territory carrying a separate franchise contract with The Coca-Cola Company.

Coca-Cola Andina was created from the merger of Embotelladora Andina and Embotelladoras Coca-Cola Polar, which took effect from the fourth quarter of 2012. Since that date, KOPOLAR.SN has existed as a residual CMF-registered entity; the economic substance trades under the Andina tickers.

Embotelladora Andina S.A., together with its subsidiaries, produces, bottles, and distributes Coca-Cola trademark beverages in Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, and also offers fruit juices, flavored waters, mineral and purified water, energy drinks, and pre-mixed cocktails, as well as PET bottles and returnable packaging.

The company is one of the seven largest Coca-Cola bottlers in the world, serving close to 50 million people.

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Who owns it

Coca-Cola Andina is controlled in equal parts by four Chilean families: Chadwick-Claro, Garcés-Silva, Said-Handal, and Said-Somavía. The four families share control through Andina Bottling Investments S.A. and related holding structures.

The Coca-Cola Company itself holds, directly or through subsidiaries, 14.65% of the Series A shares, which represents 7.33% of the total shares outstanding. The remainder is publicly traded free float on the Santiago and New York exchanges.

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Who runs it

Miguel Ángel Peirano serves as Executive Vice President of Embotelladora Andina, and was the named executive who commented on the 2024 full-year results. The 20-F filed in March 2025 names Paula Vicuña as the company’s primary regulatory contact in Santiago.

The names of the chair and CFO are not disclosed in the primary sources consulted for this profile; full board composition is available on the company’s investor-relations site and in the 20-F filed with the SEC.

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The money, in plain words

In 2024, the group’s revenue rose 23.1% to CLP 3,224,233 million (US$3.5 bn), and net profit grew 35.7% to CLP 232,663 million (US$252 mn). At the current exchange rate, that is roughly US$3.50 billion in sales and US$252 million kept as profit — a net margin of 7.2% (our calculation), solid for a capital-intensive bottler.

Volume also rose, with 268.7 million unit cases sold in 2024, an increase of 8.2%. Profit growing faster than revenue means the group is making more from each case it sells, not just selling more cases.

By market, Paraguay led volume growth at 12%, followed by Chile at 8.6%, Brazil at 8.1%, and Argentina at 6.2%. Argentina’s revenue line swelled by a much larger 94.8% in local terms, a reflection of severe peso inflation rather than real economic expansion.

Operating income for the year reached CLP 427,081 million (~US$463 million), up 19.5% from 2023. That is the profit from the actual bottling and selling business, before financial items and taxes.

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What it is doing now

For 2025 the company has targeted capital investment of US$240 million, with a significant share directed at returnable packaging and cold-storage equipment placed in retail outlets. Returnable bottles lower the cost per unit over time and are a competitive edge the group has long cultivated.

The group closed 2024 with returnable-bottle shares of 45.3% in Argentina, 40.0% in Paraguay, 39.8% in Chile, and 23.3% in Brazil — positioning it as one of the world’s leading Coca-Cola bottlers on this metric, which matters both for margin and for sustainability credentials.

In late 2024 the group also reactivated a bottling plant in Godoy Cruz, Mendoza (Argentina) that had been mothballed since 2001, backed by an investment of US$40 million.

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What to watch

• Argentina inflation: The group’s Argentine revenue in Chilean pesos nearly doubled in 2024 mostly on price, not volume. A stabilisation of the Argentine peso would reduce that artificial boost in future results.
• Returnable-packaging momentum: The group’s lead in returnables is a cost and brand differentiator; any regulatory or consumer shift away from it would dent margins.
• Franchise dependency: The Coca-Cola Company holds 7.33% of total shares and licenses all key brands. Franchise renewals and brand conditions set by Atlanta are a structural risk for any bottler in this system.
• KOPOLAR ticker status: The CMF continues to list Embotelladoras Coca-Cola Polar S.A. as a registered issuer, but the entity’s last standalone financial statements on record date to mid-2012. Investors trading KOPOLAR.SN should confirm the current legal and economic link to Andina directly with their broker or on the CMF portal.
• 2025 outlook: Andina’s Q4 2025 annual report was published on 27 January 2026, and will be the next full set of audited numbers to assess whether the 2024 record performance is repeating.

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This is news, not investment advice.