New York - Soft-drink giant Coca-Cola Co reported a drop of 10 per cent in first-quarter profits on Tuesday, citing costs to restructure its German distribution.

Profits were 1.35 billion dollars, or 58 cents per share, compared to 1.5 billion dollars, or 64 cents per share, in the same period of 2008. The extra costs in Coke's German operations pared off what would have been an additional 7 cents per share.

Worldwide, the firm's volume of drinks sold was up 2 per cent despite the global recession, but revenue dipped 2.8 per cent to 7.17 billion dollars.