Carlsberg warns of ‘challenging year’ as revenue grows

Danish brewer Carlsberg warned Tuesday that 2023 would be another “challenging year” as it reported increased revenues but swung to a net loss owing to its exit from Russia.

“The development of the war in Ukraine and the impact on our business remain highly uncertain, as is the Covid-19 recovery in China, including consumer off-take during the Chinese New Year celebrations,” the company said in its earnings report.

Revenue for the global beer maker came in at 70.26 billion Danish kroner (£8.39bn) for 2022, up 16.9 per cent from the year before.

The revenue growth was just short of analysts expectations, who had pencilled in 70.43 billion kroner according to a Bloomberg survey and 70.44 billion kroner according to one by Factset.

Carlsberg reported a net loss of 1.06 billion kroner for the year, which was impacted by writedowns of 10.74 billion kroner.

The company earned a net profit of 6.85 billion kroner in 2021.

Russia accounted for 9 per cent of Carlsberg’s profits in 2021, but the group decided to sell its operations there, joining an exodus of foreign businesses following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions against the country.

Meanwhile the company reported an adjusted net profit of 9.69 billion kroner, beating analyst expectations which were 7.73 billion kroner or 7.65 billion kroner, according surveys by Bloomberg and Factset respectively.

The company also warned that rough seas were ahead and said that “2023 will be another challenging year.”

“Due to our and our suppliers’ rolling hedging, last year’s commodity and energy price increases will have a significant impact on our 2023 cost of sales and logistics costs,” Carlsberg said.