Did a wet summer really hurt Heineken’s beer sales?

It’s such a well-worn excuse that the summer has either been too hot or too wet if brewers have to explain disappointing beer sales that it comes as a surprise that only now investors are finding it somewhat odd.

One commentator actually “smirked” after Dutch brewer Heineken blamed “poor weather” for a bigger-than-expected drop in beer sales in Europe during the July-to September period this year.

While it’s true that most of Europe enjoyed, well, suffered from unseasonably high rainfall, the weatherman also said that western Europe experienced “warmer than average” temperatures this past summer.

Don’t people like to drink more beer when it’s hot out? Maybe, but apparently not Heineken’s. The company reported on 22 October 2014 a 4.7 percent decline in beer volume in Western Europe during the July-to-September quarter, and a 6.6 percent drop in Central and Eastern Europe. Group beer volume declined 0.2 percent on an organic basis in the quarter.

Overall, Heineken's quarterly net profit slipped to EUR 460 million (USD 585 million), from EUR 483 million year-on-year.

Its revenue dropped 1.5 percent to EUR 5.1 billion versus EUR 5.18 billion a year ago.

Revenues in Western Europe fell 4.1 percent, while revenue in Eastern Europe slipped 8.5 percent. Revenue in the Americas was up 2 percent, while revenue in Africa rose 3.6 percent. Revenue in Asia surged 10 percent, the brewer reported.

Commenting on Heineken’s results, some analysts believed that Heineken’s problem has more to do with the general state of the economy in Europe and Heineken’s price increases than it just raining a lot in three months.

Alas, blaming the economy for sluggish beer sales is also a staple explanation amongst brewers. Perhaps Heineken thought that the “state of the economy” has served as the culprit far too often in the years since the Financial Crisis that it was time to resort to the weather again?