E-Malt.com News article: 3583

Belgium, Brussels: InBev announced on November 3 solid organic volume and profit growth in the first nine-month period of the year. Company’s sales volumes increased 4.4% year-on-year to 97.7 million hl. Net turnover rose 6.3% to 5,819 million Euro. EBITDA increased 7.2 % to 1,702 million Euro. The two global premium brands, Beck’s® and Stella Artois®, grew 5.7%.

Despite the change in country mix, Net Turnover grew 190 basis points faster than volume, due to better product mix and pricing. Total EBITDA margin grew from 21.4 % in 2003 to 22.6 %. Excluding AmBev, it was up 50bp to 21.9 %, despite the change in country mix.

In North America Ambev’s organic volume grew +4.8%. In Canada, domestic volumes grew organically by +0.8%, slightly below industry growth. While InBev’s strong premium brand portfolio ensured continued growth in its segment, the mainstream segment remains under pressure from the value segment.
At InBev USA, the positive trends continued, with depletions up 6.0% for the first nine months. Beck’s® depletions were +6.5%, and Bass® started to recover.

Industry weakness resulted in -2.2% organic volume decline in Western Europe. In Germany, InBev volumes declined in line with industry decline estimated at -2.4%. Lower volumes were realized for Hasseröder® (-9.8%), partly the result of pre-price increase loading in 2003. In this context, the Beck’s® family showed superior growth at +10.6%. In the UK, excluding the termination of a no-margin wholesaling contract, volumes declined due to InBev’s strategy that focuses on value rather than volume. This resulted in a Stella Artois® volume decline of -3.3%. However, Castlemaine XXXX® produced an organic volume increase of +7.0%. The Benefralux region experienced market share growth in Belgium and the Netherlands, and flat market share in France.

In Central & Eastern Europe organic volume growth was +14.9%. Eastern Europe posted the strongest volume growth performance of +22.5%. In Russia, volumes were up +26.8%, with strong performances from Sibirskaya Korona® and Klinskoye®. In the Ukraine, the industry grew an estimated +12.3%, while Sun Interbrew’s volumes increased by +15.6%. In Central Europe, InBev achieved organic volume growth of +2.3%, lower than the first half due to the continued development of cheap German beer cans in Hungary and an estimated 5.3% industry decline in Croatia.

In Asia Pacific InBev’s organic volume growth was +1.8%. In South Korea, due to a positive third quarter, InBev volumes recovered slightly to -1.5%, on a year-to-date basis. This improvement was mainly driven by the growth of the Cass® brand, which was launched in Q Pack® in May. In China, the K.K. and Nanjing breweries combined, produced an organic volume growth of +11.3%.

South America: Only one month of AmBev results is included under scope, with the following impact: volume 9.4m hl, net turnover euro 269m, EBITDA euro 99m, EBIT euro 74m.

InBev expects that it will achieve in 2004 an organic performance broadly in line with what was achieved for the first nine months of the year.

InBev is a publicly traded company (Euronext: INB) based in Leuven, Belgium. The company's origins date back to 1366, and today it is the leading global brewer by volume. InBev’s strategy is to strengthen its local platforms by building significant positions in the world's major beer markets through organic growth, world-class efficiency, targeted acquisitions, and by putting consumers first. InBev has a portfolio of more than 200 brands, including Stella Artois®, Brahma®, Beck’s®, Leffe®, Hoegaarden®, Staropramen® and Bass®. InBev employs some 70,000 people, running operations in over 30 countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. In 2003, InBev realized a net turnover of approximately 9.3 billion euro (2003 pro forma).


03 November, 2004