Warm summer weather boosts Heineken’s sales

The family controlled Dutch beer company saw global beer sales in the third quarter of 2015 increase 7.5 percent year-on-year, topping EUR 15 billion in revenue for the first nine months of 2015, it was reported on 28 October 2015.

The Dutch brewer’s performance in the Americas stood out in the three months ending 30 September 2015. It sold 10 percent more across the north and south continents. It also said sales were up in the U.S., outperforming the beer market there.

Heineken grew 10 percent in Europe too, the region that contributes the largest part of sales. Sales however declined in Russia and Belarus, as well as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, while volume growth remained flat elsewhere in Africa, including in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Algeria, Egypt and Rwanda.

Heineken provides only half-year and annual profit figures.

While AB-InBev is piling up a huge amount of debt to buy SABMiller, Heineken’s balance sheet looks positively conservative. In October it halted a EUR 750 million share buyback programme half way through, to keep its net debt below 2.5 times its annual EBITDA. Its deal-making activity has been limited to smallish purchases in Slovenia (it recently bought 53 percent of brewer Pivovarna Lasko for about EUR 120 million) and a craft beer label (a 50 percent stake in U.S. brewer Lagunitas), and tidying up its partnerships with Diageo in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.