AB-InBev UK Q3 volumes rise 0.8%

The Stella Artois and Becks brewer also reported that like-for-like beer volumes in the UK across the first three quarters were down 6.9% due to comparatives with the 2010 World Cup.

Meanwhile, Stella Artois Cidre, its off-trade only cider brand launched in the UK in April, “continued to perform well ahead of expectations”.
Stuart MacFarlane, president of AB-InBev UK, said: “We are delighted with the response to Stella Artois Cidre in the UK which continues to exceed expectations. Stella Artois Cidre has taken a 16% share of the UK off-trade premium cider market after just six months despite difficult economic conditions and poor summer weather. Overall UK beer performance remains strong despite a challenging quarter and tough comparable to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.”
Across Western Europe, Q3 own beer volumes fell 0.8%, and total volumes declined 4.5% due mainly to the termination of contracts in the UK to brew on behalf of other producers. Across the nine months, own beer volumes fell 0.2%, with total volumes down 3.1%.
Ebitda in the region declined 4.8% to US$328m in 3Q11, with margin improvement of 109 bp to 31.9%.
“This improvement was mainly driven by fixed cost management and gross profit growth following the termination of legacy commercial products contracts. Excluding the impact of these contracts, revenue per hl would have increased by 1.5% in 3Q11 and increased 1.6% in 9M11, and cost of sales per hl would have increased by 1.1% in 3Q11 and by 0.4% in 9M11.”
Ebitda across the nine months grew 0.7% to US$916m.
Internationally, normalised profits grew 16.3% to US$1.731bn. Earnings per share increased by US$0.15 to US$1.09 in Q3.
Revenues grew 3.6% in Q3 and 4.2% in the first nine months, with revenue per hl up 4% in Q3 and 4.5% across the three quarters. Q3 ebitda grew 5.5% organically to US$3,965m.
However, Q3 volumes fell 0.2%, with own beer volumes down 0.6% and non-beer volumes growing 6.4%.