Kraft Heinz vs. Coca-Cola: Stagnant Versus Growing Revenue Trends in Consumer Goods
Key Points
Coca-Cola currently presents a stronger revenue profile than Kraft Heinz, as it consistently records higher overall sales totals, including its peak for the quarter ended July 2026, while maintaining year-over-year gains.
When analyzing the last eight quarters, Coca-Cola established a clear pattern of year-over-year growth despite normal quarter-over-quarter seasonal variations, whereas Kraft Heinz largely maintained a flat and stagnant sales trajectory over that exact same timeframe.
Investors should carefully monitor whether the widening revenue gap between the two companies continues to expand in upcoming quarters, or if the disparity eventually begins to stabilize as future quarterly comparisons unfold throughout the year.
Kraft Heinz: Flat Revenue Trends Persist Over Time
Kraft Heinz Co. (NYSE:KHC) primarily generates revenue by manufacturing, marketing, and distributing a broad global portfolio of popular condiments, dairy items, prepared meals, packaged meats, and snack foods to national grocery chains, wholesale distribution providers, mass retail merchandisers, convenience store networks, and large institutional foodservice clients worldwide.
It transferred its corporate common stock listing from the Nasdaq to the New York Stock Exchange in September 2026, declared a regular quarterly cash dividend, and introduced several packaged noodle and ready-to-eat soup options to retail consumers.
Coca-Cola: Expanding Its Baseline Revenue Over Time
The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) primarily earns its revenue by producing and selling a wide variety of sparkling soft drinks, bottled water, sports beverages, value-added dairy products, and specialized flavor concentrates to independent regional bottling partners, international wholesale distributors, local retail stores, and multinational restaurant chains globally.
While managing legal investigations regarding a previous ransomware cybersecurity breach that exposed sensitive personal data at its dairy subsidiary, it secured a large national beverage supplier contract for thousands of restaurant locations starting in 2027.
Why Revenue Matters for Investors
Revenue here refers to the data provider's standardized income-statement revenue line item, which helps investors track consumer demand and sales volume before deducting operating expenses.
Kraft Heinz vs. Coca-Cola Revenue over the last 8 quarters.
Quarterly Revenue Trends for Kraft Heinz and Coca-Cola
| Calendar quarter | Kraft Heinz Revenue | Coca-Cola Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2024 | $6.4 billion (quarter ended Sept. 28, 2024) | $11.9 billion (quarter ended Sept. 27, 2024) |
| Q4 2024 | $6.6 billion (quarter ended Dec. 28, 2024) | $11.5 billion (quarter ended Dec. 31, 2024) |
| Q1 2025 | $6.0 billion (quarter ended March 29, 2025) | $11.1 billion (quarter ended March 28, 2025) |
| Q2 2025 | $6.4 billion (quarter ended June 28, 2025) | $12.5 billion (quarter ended June 27, 2025) |
| Q3 2025 | $6.2 billion (quarter ended Sept. 27, 2025) | $12.5 billion (quarter ended Sept. 26, 2025) |
| Q4 2025 | $6.4 billion (quarter ended Dec. 27, 2025) | $11.8 billion (quarter ended Dec. 31, 2025) |
| Q1 2026 | $6.0 billion (quarter ended March 28, 2026) | $12.5 billion (quarter ended April 3, 2026) |
| Q2 2026 | $6.3 billion (quarter ended June 27, 2026) | $13.4 billion (quarter ended July 3, 2026) |
Foolish Take
Normally, the first thing to note when examining a company's revenue trend is seasonality: some times of the year have stronger buying patterns than others. For most stocks, compare revenue year over year, by quarter. In normal times, seasonality holds true for consumer staples stocks like these as well, given that most products from both companies aren't staples in the true sense--people will buy more soda and snacks, such as Kraft Heinz' Jell-O, at different times of the year.
That said, this chart shows two diverging trends. Coca-Cola is growing revenue over time. There is some year-over-year seasonality, but also sequential growth, indicating the business is doing well.
By comparison, Kraft Heinz is showing a lack of sales momentum. Compare the most recent bar for the company in the chart, for Q1 2026, to Q1 2025--revenue is level. That's stagnation.
Revenue is perhaps the simplest metric investors have to judge a business by. As the chart shows, look for rising revenue, especially over similar periods of each year, and take comparable-quarter stagnation, or worse, declines, as a red flag.
Data source: Financial Modeling Prep. Data as of Oct. 22, 2026.
Brendan Coffey has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Kraft Heinz. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.