Heineken sold more beer than expected in the first quarter and posted its first year-on-year growth in quarterly volumes in a year, while maintaining its profit growth forecast for 2024.
The world’s No. 2 brewer said Wednesday that beer volumes rose 4.7 percent in January-March, beating the 2.5 percent growth expected by analysts in a survey provided by the company.
Net income before extraordinary items grew 9.4 percent to six.85 billion euros (seven.33 billion dollars), above the 7.2 percent increase expected by analysts.
Heineken is focused on restoring volume growth this year, which was hit in 2023, in part because it raised prices to offset rising prices for everything from energy to barley.
All regions recorded higher volume and net income, and the quarter was favored by the advance of Easter and extraordinary effects.
Heineken is gaining or maintaining volume share so far this year in most of its markets, and its more expensive beers also continued to outperform, Chief Financial Officer Harold van den Broek said on a call with analysts and investors.
In February, the firm disappointed investors with its wide range of forecast operating profit growth, which it said could range from low to high single digits this year. The company left this forecast unchanged, citing the calendar and specific developments, as well as a still “difficult and uncertain” economic environment.
“Despite the strong start to the year, we cannot extrapolate revenue growth to the rest of the year,” Van den Broek noted.
Laurence Whyatt, an analyst at Barclays, highlighted the recovery of Vietnam, a market with high margins, as well as the promising results of Mexico and Brazil.
In Brazil, Heineken said its namesake brand became the No. 1 brand by value in the quarter, while beer volume grew by a single-digit percentage.
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– 2024-04-30 09:16:25
