* Coca-Cola Hellenic Q2 net up 7 pct y/y to 194 mln euros
* CCH sees trading conditions remaining challenging in H2
* Says weak soft drinks demand, foreign exchange weighed
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ATHENS, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Greece's Coca-Cola Hellenic (CCH) said on Thursday second-quarter net profit rose 7 percent year-on-year even though the recession hit demand for soft drinks in key markets.
CCH, the world's second-largest bottler of Coca-Cola drinks, reported net profit of 194 million euros ($279.2 million), above consensus.
Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting, on average, net profit of 171.4 million euros, with estimates ranging from 154 million to 189 million.
CCH, 23.3 percent-owned by Coca Cola, bottles Coke-branded products in 27 countries across Europe and in Nigeria. The global economic downturn has seen consumers cut spending on soft drinks, hurting its retail business.
"Challenging global economic conditions continued to impact negatively consumer spending and our sales volumes in the second quarter," CCH Managing Director Doros Constantinou said in a statement, adding that he expected trading conditions in the second half of the year to continue to be challenging.
"However, we gained volume and value share in the nonalcoholic ready-to-drink category across many of our key markets in the first half of the year," he said.
"Whilst negative currency and channel mix trends adversely impacted our revenues, we were delighted to see the benefit of our cost saving initiatives, together with lower commodity costs, contribute to a solid operating profit performance in the quarter with comparable EBIT margin expansion."
The group said sales volume in the second quarter rose 1 percent to 593 million unit cases, slightly below an average analysts' forecast of 600.5 million.
Net profit for the first half, also published on Thursday, was down 4 percent year-on-year to 201 million euros, while sales volume was up 2 percent in the same period.
The bottling group has cut its workforce by about 4,500 people since July last year as part of its cost-cutting scheme. It is targeting operating cost savings of about 100 million euros this year. (Reporting by Ingrid Melander; editing by George Georgiopoulos and Simon Jessop)