Count Coca-Cola out of the budding cannabis market.Coca-Cola president and CEO James Quincey told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday the beverage giant has no plans to enter the cannabis drink space. In September, Coke said it was “closely watching” the space and had not yet decided on whether to get involved.
The company was rumored to be nearing a partnership with Aurora Cannabis.
The company reported Tuesday third-quarter earnings of 58 cents a share, which beat Wall Street forecasts of 55 cents. Net sales clocked in at $8.25 billion versus forecasts of $8.17 billion. While the company had tepid sales in the juice business, sales of Diet Coke and water saw solid increases, Coke said.
Quincey added that Coke has not seen a slowdown in its business from cooling U.S. GDP growth. He also downplayed the prospect for entering the alcoholic beverage market in the U.S. Coke earlier this year released its first alcoholic drink in Japan, a carbonated beverage with about 3% alcohol.
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Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @BrianSozzi
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