Excise hike and price increase dampen Efes’ Turkish beer sales
On the face of it, things don’t look all that bad for Efes’ beer division. On 15 January 2013 Turkish brewer Efes reported that total beer sales by volume in 2012 were 28.4 million hl, up 23.5 percent over the previous year, thanks to the combination with SABMiller in Russia and the Ukraine early last year.
However, organically, Efes’ total beer volumes declined on a proforma basis by 3.8 percent last year over 2011.
In Turkey, beer sales came under pressure in the last quarter 2012, following the average price increase of 12 percent in response to the Turkish government’s beer excise hike of 17 percent as of 22 September 2012. That’s why for the full year beer sales only went up by 2.1 percent in 2012 over 2011.
Things were a tad more complicated in Russia, where Efes’ own sales dropped, leading to a decline of 6.1 percent in 2012 over 2011 for the whole international beer division. The downbeat trends were caused by the integration process with SABMiller and tightening Russian regulations on the consumption of beer in public places, as well as sales at kiosks.
Still, when factoring in SABMiller’s volume contribution, beer sales in Efes ‘ international division were up 35.5 percent to reach 19.8 million hl in 2012.
Moreover, there was a strong trading update provided by the soft drinks bottler Coca-Cola Icecek in which Anadolu Efes owns a 50.3 percent stake. Soft drinks sales volumes added 11.7 percent in 2012 over the previous year, underpinned by healthy trading dynamics across Anadolu’s major foreign markets.
