We're pleased to say that March marked a return to volume levels seen in March of 2019 prior to the pandemic.
It's important to note that the path to a full recovery remains asynchronous around the world.
Strong performance in India and Southwest Asia was driven by effective marketing across brands, affordable solutions, and distribution expansion with 250,000 new outlets and 45% more new coolers.
In Eurasia and the Middle East, brand Coke recruited 4.4 million consumers through affordability packages and a focus on at-home occasions.
Cost of express machines continue to deliver strong performance.
For instance, we've taken a scaled, digitized approach to buying trade materials resulting in up to 15% cost reduction and improved user experience, all while offering more consistent, better quality, and sustainable alternatives.
Local experiments like Aquarius with functional benefits and Ayataka Cafe Matcha Latte in Japan, Fanta's exciting mystery flavor innovation in Europe, and package innovations like the 13.2-ounce recycled PET bottle in North America could all be lifted and shifted globally over time.
And in markets like Turkey, where the channel is still developing with more than tripled sales and gained almost 10 points of share versus last year.
We're using our network to deliver 700,000 doses with vaccine information to more than 350,000 mom-and-pop stores.
This includes our 2025 and 2030 packaging goals, our 2030 climate goal, and our new 2030 water security strategy with more details to come later this year.
2021 is off to a good start, with the quarter showing steady sequential monthly improvement.
Our Q1 organic revenue was up 6%, driven by concentrate shipments up 5% and price/mix improvement of 1%.
First-quarter comparable earnings per share of $0.55 is an increase of 8% year over year and was driven by top-line growth, margin improvement, and some contribution from equity income, offset by currency headwinds.
Since we embarked on a journey toward best-in-class working capital performance, we've made great strides in extending our payment terms, generating a working capital improvement of more than $1 billion over two years.
And as we noted in our release, we now expect currency to be a tailwind of approximately 1% to 2% to the top line and approximately 2% to 3% to comparable earnings per share in 2021 based on current spot rates and our hedge positions.
For the full year, we now expect an underlying effective tax rate of 19.1%.
Putting it all together, our quarterly performance and the momentum we saw in March give us confidence in our ability to achieve our 2021 guidance.

Summary:
We're pleased to say that March marked a return to volume levels seen in March of 2019 prior to the pandemic.
It's important to note that the path to a full recovery remains asynchronous around the world.
Cost of express machines continue to deliver strong performance.
2021 is off to a good start, with the quarter showing steady sequential monthly improvement.
Our Q1 organic revenue was up 6%, driven by concentrate shipments up 5% and price/mix improvement of 1%.
First-quarter comparable earnings per share of $0.55 is an increase of 8% year over year and was driven by top-line growth, margin improvement, and some contribution from equity income, offset by currency headwinds.
And as we noted in our release, we now expect currency to be a tailwind of approximately 1% to 2% to the top line and approximately 2% to 3% to comparable earnings per share in 2021 based on current spot rates and our hedge positions.
Putting it all together, our quarterly performance and the momentum we saw in March give us confidence in our ability to achieve our 2021 guidance.