Heineken holds forecast as sells less beer, but makes more money

BRUSSELS, Oct 25 (Reuters) – Heineken retained its full-year outlook on Wednesday after the world’s second largest brewer sold less beer in the third quarter but still took in more money due to higher prices and consumers opting for more expensive lagers.

The Dutch maker of Europe’s top-selling lager Heineken, as well as Sol and Tiger, said Brazil and Mexico were strong, Asia was improved from earlier but still down, Africa volumes were hit by declines in Nigeria and South Africa and Europe was affected by poor summer weather in July and August.

Chief Executive Dolf van den Brink said in a statement that Heineken was seeing improved volume trends in half of its markets and was holding market share in just over half.

“Whilst inflation-led pricing is tapering, we observe a slowdown of consumer demand in various markets facing challenging macro-economic conditions,” he said.

Heineken said beer volumes fell by 4.2% on a like-for-like basis in the July-September quarter, with declines in all regions except the Americas. Net revenue before one-offs rose 4.5%.

The figures were in line with expectations, with a 4.3% decline in volumes and a 4.8% increase in revenue seen by analysts in a company-compiled poll.

Heineken repeated its forecast for operating profit growth in 2023 of between zero and a mid-single-digit percentage.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.