Carlsberg boosts earnings thanks to higher sales of premium beers
Carlsberg boosted earnings and improved its operating margins in the first half of the year, thanks to greater sales of its more expensive beers.
The Danish brewer said its sales increased 6.5 per cent in the first-half today, despite declining sales in its key market Russia.
Russia sales fell three per cent due to price hikes and tougher competition.
In Asia, Carlsberg grew net revenue 15 per cent, helped by 8.5 per cent volume growth and increased sales of premium brands, even though the Chinese market declined slightly.
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“Asia continues strongly as expected. It looks good over there both on volume and price mix and their craft and specialty beer,” Jyske Markets analyst Henrik Hallengreen Laustsen said.
The brewer has moved its focus from cutting costs to boosting revenue, especially through greater sales of its premium brands.
Carlsberg reported a three per cent increase in price/mix, which indicates whether the company sold more of its expensive beers.
Sales in the first-half were 32.99bn Danish krone (£4.08bn).
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“We delivered a strong set of results for the first six months of 2019, with healthy top-line development, strong margin improvement and continued solid cash flow” chief executive Cees ‘t Hart said.
Operating margins were 16 per cent, an improvement of 160 basis points.
Last week, Carlsberg raised its expectations for organic operating profit to “high-single-digit” from “mid-single-digit” percentage growth and said it had achieved a strong operating margin improvement.
Carlsberg shares rose 5.6 per cent to 1,003.5 Danish krone.