Saved by thirsty Africans
Dutch brewer Heineken on 26 October 2011 reported a 1 percent rise in net profit for the third quarter (July to September 2011), claiming that strong sales in Africa and elsewhere offset the impact of poor summer weather in Europe.
Net profit reached EUR 525 million (USD 736 million) in the three months, while sales grew slightly by 0.6 percent from last year to EUR 4.65 billion, despite the disadvantage of a strong euro, the company said.
Heineken sold 56.9 million hl of beer in the third quarter, an increase of 2.7 percent, with western Europe the only region to record a 1.7 percent drop in volume.
In eastern Europe beer volumes grew 4.9 percent, driven by a “strong volume rebound in Russia”, compared with last year when the government raised taxes on beer by 200 percent. In Africa and the Middle East, beer volumes grew 6 percent, boosted by good results in Nigeria, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Heineken said in a statement.
In Greece, the demand for beer was hampered by the government’s austerity measures, leading to a single-digit decline, it said.
The volume of the Heineken brand in the international premium segment rose 4 percent in the quarter. The company had said earlier this year that it would focus “towards volume and value share growth” for the brand in Europe by increasing marketing spending.
The volume sold of Desperados, the tequila-flavoured beer, grew 18 percent in the quarter. This follows launches in ten countries since the beginning of 2011 and continued growth in existing markets, led by strong volume gains in France.
Heineken cannot have been too happy with the performance of its Strongbow cider. The volume of Strongbow was “in line” with the prior year quarter, i.e. flat, as higher brand volumes in South Africa and Italy were offset by a low single-digit decline in the UK in the quarter.
The Dutch group stressed its outlook was on target for 2011 with operating profit "broadly in line with last year" at EUR 1.445 billion (USD 2.2 billion).
