Dutch brewing giant Heineken on Wednesday reported surging profit in the first quarter borne up by markets outside Europe, where national coronavirus lockdowns remain in force.
With lockdown in place, total volume in the UK was down around 30 percent due to on-trade volume close to zero. The off-trade grew ahead of the market in the low-thirties, driven by Heineken, Strongbow, and Birra Moretti.
Beer volume declined organically by 9.7 per cent in Europe as lockdowns were in place throughout the entire quarter.
The bottom line at the world’s number two brewer added 78.7 percent year-on-year to reach €168 million (£145 million) in January-March, the company said.
Remaining “significantly impacted” by the pandemic, the net profit was just over half the 299 million euros booked in 2019, the last unaffected period. In the first quarter of the last year, the profit was just €94 million.
But looking ahead executives “expect market conditions to gradually improve into the second part of the year, depending on the roll-out of vaccines,” Heineken added.
The company has already announced that it will slash 8,000 jobs – around 10 percent of its global workforce – after bar closures in many countries helped drive it into a net loss in 2020.
Heineken said the volume of beer it had delivered worldwide remained roughly stable, with “strong growth in the Africa, Middle East & Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific regions” offsetting a sharp decline in Europe.
It did not publish revenue data for the first quarter.
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