Fourth-quarter net earnings fell to $82 million, or 17 cents per share, compared with $128 million, or 28 cents per share, a year earlier.
The latest results included tax benefits of $19 million, or 4 cents a share, and reflected a reduction in the company's full-year effective tax rate to 30 percent from 31 percent.
Excluding one-time items, Atlanta-based Coke Enterprises said it earned 13 cents per share.
Revenue rose to $4.4 billion from $4.31 billion.
Analysts on average had forecast a profit of 13 cents per share on sales of $4.36 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
Morgan Stanley analyst Bill Pecoriello said the results were also boosted by a weak US dollar. He expressed scepticism about the bottler's volume growth prospects in North America, its largest market.
Shares of Coke Enterprises fell $1.06 cents to $21.94 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
The quarterly results capped a difficult year for the company, which was hurt by poor weather and economic weakness in its European markets and a continuing shift by consumers away from sugary soft drinks in North America.
Coke Enterprises executives expressed disappointment at the overall performance in 2004, but said the company had taken steps to get its business back on track in North America and Europe.
The bottler reaffirmed its forecast of earnings per share in 2005 in the low to mid $1.30s range. It said the earnings would be weighted toward the second half of the year.
"We made significant progress in key areas of our operations that leave our business stronger and more capable of creating sustainable, profitable growth," Coke Enterprises Chairman Lowry Kline said.
The company is hoping that the rollout of a flurry of new drinks, including the Full Throttle energy drink, Coca-Cola with Lime and Dasani flavoured waters, will help reignite sales this year.
Boosting demand for the slumping Coca-Cola Classic brand and other regular soft drinks also will remain a priority.
Coke Enterprises' sales as measured by volume, a key gauge of performance in the beverage sector, were flat in the fourth quarter. Volumes were down 1 percent in North America, but up 2.5 percent in Europe.
The weakness was partially offset through higher prices for soft drinks, juices, bottled waters and other beverages. Coke Enterprises charged 2 percent more for its drinks in the period.
Higher prices have become the cornerstone of a new strategy designed to boost the bottler's profitability. In the past, the company sometimes sacrificed price hikes in order to protect unit case sales and market share.