You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: I'm here with James Quincey, our chairman and chief executive officer; and John Murphy, our chief financial officer.
Note that we posted schedules under Financial Information in the Investors section of our company website at www.
You can also find schedules in the same section of our website that provide an analysis of our gross and operating margins.
Today, I'd like to reflect on the past year and how we've emerged stronger from the pandemic, including positive performance in the fourth quarter.
I'll also highlight the broader macro environment and how we're executing in the marketplace.
Finally, I'll touch briefly on the accelerators for growth that give us confidence we can achieve the 2022 guidance we've provided today, with more on them to come at CAGNY later this month.
John will then discuss financial results for the quarter and our outlook in more detail.
In 2021, the operating environment remained dynamic as the pandemic continued to evolve and factors like inflation and supply chain disruptions brought additional challenges.
But over the year, our organization and the system continued to manage through these circumstances with focus and flexibility.
We are pleased with the results, which were above 2019 across key metrics, and we remain focused on building a stronger total beverage company.
Now looking more closely at our fourth quarter results.
We saw another quarter of sequential improvement versus 2019, and we ended the year with volume ahead of 2019.
Notably, it was the first quarter in which away-from-home volume was also ahead of 2019 while at-home channels remained strong.
So recapping the quarter 4 performance around the world, starting with Asia Pacific.
China delivered strong performance in the quarter by capturing a growing trend among consumers' zero-calorie offerings, we doubled our Zero Sugar sparkling portfolio in terms of volume compared to the fourth quarter of 2019.
We leveraged RGM strategies and targeting investments to gain share in e-commerce, thus driving growth for the overall business.
In India, initiatives to build omnichannel presence and marketing campaigns around key occasions by leveraging festivals and passion points through occasion-led marketing and integrated execution drove a sequential increase in market share and nearly 30% growth in transactions for the quarter.
Additionally, our local Thums Up brand became $1 billion brand in India, driven by focused marketing and execution plans.
In Japan, while our system was faced with a very challenging year, we gained value share and consumers driven by successful innovation and commercial strategies.
In ASEAN and South Pacific, there were strict restrictions and limited reopenings in many markets for a large part of the year.
In Q4, acceleration of vaccine efforts and strong results from the Fanta Colorful People and Sprite Make it Clear campaigns helped drive our recovery.
In EMEA, volume in Europe in the quarter surpassed 2019 despite mobility restrictions, particularly in Western Europe.
Despite the recovery remaining asynchronous in the region, increased investments behind our brands in the marketplace resulted in our system driving the highest incremental retail value among FMCG players in the region.
In Africa, volume continued to be ahead of 2019 in the fourth quarter, driven by our key markets with strong double-digit growth in Nigeria and Egypt.
Additionally, increased investments behind our affordability and multi-serve packages drove value share for the full year above 2019 in the region.
In Eurasia and Middle East, the top line continued to expand faster than the macro environment, driven by strong revenue growth management, execution, and digital capabilities.
Turkey, one of our key markets, grew 7 points of value share for the year in digital as total digital commerce expanded by close to 90%.
In North America, despite COVID cases leading to business closings and some mobility restrictions, value share growth was strong in the quarter, driven by pricing, revenue growth management, and strong execution in the market.
The new Coca-Cola Zero Sugar continued to deliver strong results, outpacing category growth, while Sprite and smartwater grew drinker base and buy rates.
Innovations also delivered strong performances, led by Coke with Coffee and Simply Almond.
Latin America delivered another quarter of strong performance with mid-single-digit volume growth versus 2019.
This resilience of the system has been driven by years of experience navigating volatile environments through strong and effective execution.
Within Global Ventures, Costa continued to recover through the year but was impacted in Q4 due to COVID-related restrictions.
Costa Express continued its strong performance in the U.K., delivering results ahead of expectations.
In China, the Costa ready-to-drink expansion continued with availability now in more than 300,000 outlets, continuing to drive our share position ahead of our key competitor.
Finally, our Bottling Investment Group continues to focus on productivity and transformation initiatives, delivering strong operating margin expansion for full year 2021.
Due to improved mobility throughout the year, our industry is growing in both volume and value.
Gaining share was a key objective in our Emerging Stronger agenda.
And this year, we gained value share in both at-home and away-from-home channels.
Our NARTD market share is above 2019 levels at a global level and in both at-home and away-from-home channels.
We will continue to identify and address opportunities to further improve our value share, driven by data-backed insights.
As we close the chapter on 2021, we emerge stronger by delivering both top line and earnings per share ahead of 2019, and we gained share in a growing industry.
The actions we took during the pandemic have resulted in an agile, a focused organization that is poised to capture the sizable opportunities that exist.
And we continue to look to the future to build on our momentum and drive growth.
As we turn to 2022, while it is impossible for us to know whether this variant will be the last, what is clear is that our consumers, our customers, and our business are learning and adapting with great resilience.
For example, while we have seen some impacts from the omicron variant through the first few weeks of the year, we are not seeing the same level of disruption as previous waves, and our system is better equipped.
Further recovery in 2022 will be determined by macro factors, including overall consumer sentiment, as well as supply chain challenges; labor shortages; and of course, the inflationary pressures, and interest rates.
We are confident we are well equipped to navigate this environment and deliver on the guidance we provided today.
We're excited about where we are today and the substantial initiatives we have in place for 2022.
The consumer continues to be at the center of our strategy.
And through our total beverage company agenda, we are adapting to the macro and micro trends which are shaping consumer habits.
We advanced our total beverage company agenda last year by streamlining our portfolio, focusing on the core, and investing behind a portfolio of brands that allows us to meet the evolving needs of consumers.
We completed much of this work on brand eliminations while being deliberate with brand transitions.
This optimized portfolio will ensure we follow the consumer and win in emerging and fast-growing categories.
And is complemented by the recent strategic acquisition of BODYARMOR; as well as relationships, like the new agreement with Constellation Brands, which will launch Fresca Mixed; and the extended relationship with Molson Coors, which will launch Simply Spiked Lemonade in the U.S.
Our network marketing model, with global category teams and local operating units, is allowing us to focus on end-to-end consumer experiences that are data-driven and always on.
Our announcement of WPP as our global marketing network partner is a foundational component of our new marketing model.
This new agency approach gives us access to the best creative lines, regardless of source, and is underpinned by leading-edge data and technology capabilities.
The Real Magic campaign is the first campaign which was cocreated internally leveraging this new end-to-end approach.
And the campaign is showing strong results with the consumers.
We have good visibility into the benefits of the new marketing model.
The approach will allow us to deliver best-in-class consumer-centric marketing experiences across our categories and around the world.
We also built more discipline into our innovation process in 2021 with a key focus on scalable bets that can build momentum year over year.
It's still early, but the approach is working.
Revenue per launch and gross profit per launch were up 30% and 25%, respectively, versus prior year.
And we took intelligent local experiments and moved more rapidly to scale them across geographies.
Sustainable packaging like refillables and labelless bottles, along with brands like Coke with Coffee, fairlife, AHA, Costa ready-to-drink, and Lemondo, are all examples of local winners that have been extended to more markets.
For 2022, our innovation process is increasingly supported by data, and our pipeline is robust with built-in agility and consists of big bets along with many shots on goal.
The system has stepped up its RGM and execution capabilities, which is helping us navigate an inflationary environment, driving value growth in a segmented way.
Due to the strength of our bottling partners and the stronger than ever alignment of the system, we are prepared to address opportunities, as well as challenges that may lie ahead.
Our network organizational structure is designed to better connect functions and operating units to help our system scale ideas faster.
As we've emerged stronger, we kept moving forward on integrating sustainability work into our business as it is a key driver of future growth.
During the quarter, we were recognized for our commitment to transparency and action to address environmental risks by earning an A score in CDP's Assessment for Water, an improvement over last year.
We improved or maintained our score in CDP's assessments on other important areas, like climate and forests.
Additionally, to complement our World Without Waste goals, we announced a new global goal to reach 25% reusable packaging by 2030.
Increasing refillable and reusable packaging options responds to consumer affordability and our sustainability aspirations, and it helps create a circular economy as refillable packages have extremely high levels of collection and are low carbon footprint beverage containers.
We expect the recovery will remain asynchronous, but we are encouraged by our growing industry, our unparalleled system strength, and a strategic transformation that enables us to be agile and to adapt.
Our actions drove strong results in 2021, and we have confidence in our ability to deliver another year of strong performance in 2022 and over the long term.
Now John will provide more details on our results and our 2020 guidance.
In the fourth quarter, we closed the year with strong results, despite the impact of the omicron variant across many parts of the world.
Our Q4 organic revenue growth was 9%.
Our price/mix of 10% was driven by a combination of factors, including targeted pricing, revenue growth management initiatives, as well as further improvement in away-from-home channels in many markets.
Unit case growth showed further sequential improvement on a two-year basis, and concentrate sales lagged unit cases by 10 points in the quarter, primarily due to six fewer days in the quarter.
Despite the commodity market inflation and the dynamic supply chain environment, comparable gross margin for the quarter was relatively flat versus prior year.
Pricing initiatives and favorable channel and package mix were offset by the impact of consolidating the fast-growing finished goods BODYARMOR business, along with incremental investments to sustain momentum in the overall business for 2022.
We continued to invest in markets as they recovered and stepped up year-over-year marketing dollars again in Q4, spending in a targeted way to maximize returns.
This increase in marketing investments, along with some top-line pressure from six fewer days in the quarter, resulted in comparable operating margin compression of approximately 500 basis points for the quarter.
For the full year, comparable operating margin was down approximately 100 basis points versus prior year as improved comparable gross margin was offset by the significant step-up in marketing.
Importantly, versus 2019, a key measure we have focused on, comparable operating margin was up approximately 100 basis points.
Putting it all together.
Fourth quarter comparable earnings per share of $0.45 was a decline of 5% year over year, resulting in full year comparable earnings per share of $2.32, an increase of 19% versus the prior year, as the strong resurgence in the business also benefited from a 3-point tailwind from currency and tax.
We delivered strong free cash flow of $11.3 billion in 2021, with free cash flow conversion of approximately 115% and a dividend payout ratio well below our long-term target of 75%.
With these results, we exceeded guidance on every metric for full year 2021.
We have done tremendous work to emerge ahead of 2019 and set the stage to drive our growth agenda for years to come.
We are spinning the strategy flywheels faster and more effectively.
Our organization is focused on execution and enhancing our capabilities to fuel growth.
As James mentioned, the pandemic will be one of the many factors, along with the dynamic macro backdrop that we face in the coming year.
But our local businesses are ready to adapt and execute for growth.
We expect organic revenue growth of approximately 7% to 8%, and we expect comparable currency-neutral earnings-per-share growth of 8% to 10% versus 2021.
Based on current rates and our hedge positions, we anticipate an approximate 3-point currency headwind to comparable revenue and an approximate 3 to 4 points currency headwind to comparable earnings per share for full year 2022.
Additionally, due to a certain change in recent regulations, we estimate an effective tax rate increase from 18.6% in 2021 to 20% for 2022, which is an estimated 2 percentage points headwind to EPS.
Therefore, all in, we expect comparable earnings-per-share growth of 5% to 6% versus 2021, including the combined 5- to 6-point headwind from currency and tax.
We expect to generate approximately $10.5 billion of free cash flow over 2022 through approximately $12 billion in cash from operations, less approximately $1.5 billion in capital investments.
This implies the fourth consecutive year of free cash flow conversion above our long-term range of 90% to 95%.
We continue to raise the performance bar across the organization and are confident in delivering on this 2022 guidance.
In summary, we expect to deliver another year of strong top-line-driven growth, along with maximized returns, driven by the strategic changes we have made in our business.
There are several considerations to keep in mind for 2022.
Overall, inflationary and supply chain pressures continue to impact costs across several fronts in the business, including input costs, transportation, marketing and operating expenses.
With regards to commodity costs.
After benefiting from our hedging strategy in 2021, we remain well hedged in 2022, but at higher levels.
Based on current rates and hedge positions, we continue to expect commodity price inflation to have a mid-single-digit impact on comparable cost of goods sold in 2022.
However, we are taking actions in the marketplace using multiple levers, including RGM in its many forms, along with our productivity initiatives, to help offset much of the impact.
As a reminder for your modeling, the consolidation of the recently acquired fast-growing BODYARMOR finished goods business will have a mechanical effect on margins.
When it comes to capital allocation, our balance sheet remains strong, and our improving cash flow position is allowing us to be even more vigorous in pursuit of priorities that balance financial flexibility with efficient capital structure, first and foremost, to invest in our business; secondly, continuing our track record to grow our dividend; thirdly, to seek opportune M&A, and to repurchase shares with excess cash.
And finally, due to the calendar shift, there will be one less day in the first quarter and one additional day in the fourth quarter.
Despite another year of uncertainty, in 2021, we came together as a system to emerge stronger and position ourselves to drive sustainable growth.
We are encouraged by the momentum in our business and are clear on the direction we're headed.
As we look to 2022, we feel confident in our ability to deliver on the commitments we outlined today.
With that, operator, we are ready to take questions.

user
q4 non-gaap earnings per share $0.45.
q4 revenue rose 10 percent to $9.5 billion.
organic revenues (non-gaap) grew 9% for quarter and 16% for full year.
global unit case volume grew 9% for quarter and 8% for full year.
for full year 2022 company expects to deliver organic revenue (non-gaap) growth of 7% to 8%.
company expects commodity price inflation to be a mid single-digit percentage headwind on comparable cost of goods sold in 2022.
coca-cola- for 2022 comparable net revenue (non-gaap), expects a 2% to 3% currency headwind based on current rates, including impact of hedged positions.
for full year 2022 comparable earnings per share percentage growth is expected to include a 3% to 4% currency headwind.
sees q1 comparable earnings per share (non-gaap) percentage growth is expected to include an approximate 5% currency headwind.
for q1 2022, comparable net revenues are expected to include an approximate 3% currency headwind.
for full year 2022, expects to deliver comparable currency neutral earnings per share growth of 8% to 10% and comparable earnings per share growth of 5% to 6%.

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