Beer giant reveals reason behind strong start to 2024

The Amsterdam-based company revealed that group revenues grew by 7.2% to 8.18 billion euros (£7 billion)

A person drinking a pint of beer (PA Wire)

Drinks giant Heineken has sold more beer over the latest quarter, driven by higher demand in supermarkets.

The UK business of Heineken also grew on the back of strong sales of Birra Moretti amid growth in the group’s “premium” brands.

The Amsterdam-based company revealed that group revenues grew by 7.2% to 8.18 billion euros (£7 billion) for the first three months of 2024.

The Dutch brewer, which also makes Amstel lager and Strongbow cider,

It also reported a 4.7% rise in organic beer volumes, driven by 7.3% growth for its premium beers.

This included its Heineken branded drinks, which drove higher volumes, with a 12.9% improvement globally.

In Europe, net revenues grew 0.4% organically, with the company also benefiting from an improvement in price mix as shoppers opted for more expensive products.

It added that higher volumes were driven by the off-trade, meaning supermarkets and other retailers.

It helped to offset lower volumes sold across venues, such as restaurants, pubs and bars.

The maker of Heineken saw total revenues increase by 2% for the third quarter of 2023 to 9.6 billion euros (Lynne Cameron/PA) (PA Archive)

Dolf van den Brink, chief executive and chairman, described the performance as an “encouraging start to 2024”.

“All regions grew volume and net revenue, and we continued to see a sequential improvement in the performance of the business, growing in line or ahead of the category in the majority of our markets,” he said.

“This quarter was boosted by an earlier Easter and cycling negative one-off effects from last year.

“Top-line delivery was well-balanced between volume and value as more markets returned to volume growth and our underlying premiumisation trends remained strong.”

Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Heineken’s first-quarter results finally gave the group something to raise a glass to.

“Total beer volumes were much better than the market expected, meaning that growth on the top line came from a much healthier mix of both price and volume this quarter.

“Despite the solid start to 2024, full-year guidance remains unchanged with underlying operating profit expected to grow at a low-to-high single-digit rate.”

In October last year Heineken said that the amount of beer it sold dropped again over the latest quarter after customers swallowed higher prices.

It said this included a sharper fall in volumes of its premium beers sold.

Heineken said this was also partly caused by poor weather across Europe in July and August, with sales trends picking up again in September as conditions improved.