The largest U.S. bottler of Coca-Cola products reported a 45.3 percent improvement on net income in its 2018 third quarter, despite continued struggles in profitability from its operations.

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Coca-Cola Bottling Co. reported net income of $25.2 million, or $2.69 per share, compared to $17.3 million in the same quarter a year ago, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company was expected to report earnings of $1.64 per share, according to an analyst estimate.

The net income growth came primarily from an exchange transaction gain of $10.2 million during the quarter. Coke Bottling had not previously reported an exchange transaction gain in the last two fiscal years.

Net sales for the quarter grew 4.2 percent, to $1.2 billion. But Coke Bottling’s cost of sales also increased 5.2 percent.

CEO Frank Harrison noted struggles in the commodities and transportation markets as challenges for the company.

The company has implemented strategic pricing actions, which it said helped facilitate a growth in sales despite its physical volume of cases sold declining slightly to 86.7 million.

The company’s gross margin showed it has continued to maintain less profit from its sales compared to 2017. In the third quarter, Coke Bottling’s gross margin came out to 34.7 percent, a decline of 0.6 percentage points over the same quarter last year.

For the first three quarters of 2018 combined, the company’s gross margin fell 2.1 percentage points compared to the same period a year ago. But that gap was more severe during the first two quarters of the year, and Harrison saw the third quarter as an upbeat sign.

“The sequential improvements we see in gross margin trends so far this year are very encouraging,” Harrison said in a statement. “We remain focused on making strategic fiscal decisions and investing for the long-term benefit of our teammates, brands, communities, stockholders and other stakeholders.”

Coke Bottling spent $10.4 million on system transformation during the quarter, primarily due to the implementation of a new information platform. It expects to spend between $6 million and $8 million next quarter for the same reason.

The company also expects to begin distribution of a premium sports drink called BodyArmor in some of its territories during the next quarter, a product it expects to expand on in the future.

Coke Bottling closed Wednesday at $179.95, up 12 cents.