SABMiller, the global brewer, has reported a 5% rise in volumes in its UK arm Miller Brands for the 12 months to 31 March, citing “strong performance throughout the year” from Peroni Nastro Azzurro.
The UK outperformed Europe as a whole, where there was an “improvement in trend but challenging market conditions remain”. Group net producer revenue (NPR) in Europe was in line with the prior year, “with an improved growth trend in the fourth quarter”.
“On an organic basis, total volumes for the full year were down 1%, with lager volumes down 4%, following a challenging first half adversely affected by poor weather in our key markets, which had a particular impact on our innovation launches.
“Across the region, economic uncertainty and weak consumer sentiment persisted.”
For example, lager volumes in the Czech Republic fell 4% and in Poland they declined by 9%.
“Italy’s domestic volumes were down 1%, outperforming a declining market, despite a reduction of discounts. Domestic lager volumes in the UK were up 5% with strong performance throughout the year from Peroni Nastro Azzurro.
“In our other Central and Eastern European markets, lager volumes were up low single digits for the full year on an organic basis.”
Globally the company reported a 3% rise in NPR for the 12 months. Total beverage volumes grew by 2% for the full year on an organic basis, with lager volumes up 1% and soft drinks volumes up 5%. The group’s financial performance is “in line with expectations”, SAB Miller said.
Alan Clark, chief executive of SABMiller, said: “We continued to deliver top line growth for the year, despite a number of headwinds and a challenging fourth quarter. The combination of our global overview and deep local insights enables us to fine tune our operations in each market and to deliver commercial progress, which underpins our confidence in our ability to deliver higher revenue growth in the longer term.”
