U.S. Coca-Cola Co, the world’s largest soft drink maker, may leave the Russian market, the company’s head James Quincy has admitted.

Quincy said at the CEO Council Summit event organized by The Wall Street Journal that Coca-Cola may come to the point where its business in Russia “will completely disappear” if the conflict in Ukraine drags on (his words are quoted by the publication).

In March, the company announced that it would suspend the supply of ingredients for its beverages for the Russian market.

Coca-Cola was criticized for not stopping sales in Russia. At the same time, Quincy doubts that the actions of companies like Coca-Cola can put pressure on the authorities.

Earlier, Coca-Cola predicted that suspending business in Russia would take 1-2% away from revenue and operating profit for 2022.

The Russian Federation is home to bottler Coca-Cola Co. – Coca-Cola HBC. The company owns 10 soft drink and juice plants in the country – in Moscow and the Moscow region (two plants), St. Petersburg, Samara, Yekaterinburg, the Rostov region, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and Vladivostok.

As reported, in 2021 Coca-Cola HBC increased sales in Russia by 18.3% to 373.3 million boxes (one box contains about 5.7 liters, i.e. sales in Russia amounted to about 2.1 billion liters).