Carlsberg on Track to Meet Full-Year Targets
Carlsberg Group has started 2011 well and is firmly on track to meet its full-year financial targets. In the traditionally small first quarter of the year, beer volumes grew by 11% to 23.3m hl, net revenue growth was 14% to DKr12.5b (Eur1.7b) and operating profit rose by 38% to DKr1b. However, the comparison is distorted by the destocking in Russia in the first quarter of 2010.
According to Carlsberg, overall beer markets in Northern and Western Europe declined in quarter one, and consumer dynamics remain challenging although there are some signs of small improvements. Carlsberg improved overall market share in the region with particularly strong improvement in Poland and South East Europe and with the UK business continuing to strengthen its market position.
Performance of the Eastern European business in the first quarter benefited from an improving macroeconomic environment and from distorted year-on-year comparisons. The group’s total beer volumes grew organically by 28% for the quarter. Adjusted for the destocking impact in Russia in Q1 2010, the organic volume growth for the region would have been an estimated 6%.
Jorgen Buhl Rasmussen, chief executive of Carlsberg.
On April 5th, the group launched a new global positioning of the Carlsberg brand with the aim of unleashing the brand’s full potential within the coming years. The new positioning will be rolled out across markets throughout 2011 using a wide variety of multimedia and marketing communication channels.
Supported by slightly higher marketing investments than in 2010, the group is well on track in the planning and executing of the commercial activities that will deliver the expected profitable market share growth across a large part of the business.
Carlsberg has confirmed its underlying assumptions and full-year outlook for market share growth in markets representing two-thirds of its business, high single digit percentage growth in operating profit and adjusted net profit growth of more than 20%.
Jorgen Buhl Rasmussen, chief executive of Carlsberg, comments: “We are satisfied with the group’s performance in Q1, while at the same time acknowledging that in most of our markets, it is a small quarter. We are particularly pleased that the important Russian market has returned to growth. We continue the efficiency agenda with the implementation of several large projects in 2011 and, at the same time, a number of commercial initiatives are taking place to support profitable market share growth. This includes the global repositioning of the Carlsberg brand that was announced in April. That calls for a Carlsberg.”
