SABMiller has said that its performance in the three months to 30 June was in line with expectations, with group net producer revenue (NPR) up by 6% and total beverage volumes up by 3%.
The company said that lager volumes in the period grew by 1% on an organic basis, driven by its operations in China, Europe and Africa.
Soft drinks volumes grew by 10% on an organic basis, reflecting strong growth in Latin America, Europe, South Africa and Africa.
Group NPR in the UK increased by 23%, which the company said was driven by the continued growth of Peroni Nastro Azzurro, and reflected “improved distribution both in the off-premise and on-premise channels”.
In Europe, group NPR grew by 8% driven by total beverage volume growth of 5%, with lager volumes up 3%.
The company said that performance in the region the quarter was assisted by cycling a comparative prior year quarter with poor weather and which excluded an Easter trading period.
Alan Clark, chief executive of SABMiller, said: “We continued to drive strong NPR growth across our businesses. This has been achieved through our prolonged success in building local and global flagship brands across our broad geographic footprint, together with innovations and improved trade execution. Strong growth in Africa, South Africa and Europe was balanced by slower momentum in North America and a reduction in NPR in Australia in difficult trading conditions. Latin America performed well despite a number of one-off trading restrictions in Colombia.”
