Heineken plans more savings as profits recover after weather hit summer sales
HEINEKEN, the world’s third-largest brewer, has beaten expectations with a nine per cent profit increase in 2011 after recovering from a damp European summer that kept a lid on drinking, and launched a new drive to cut costs.
Heineken, which had forecast flat net profit, said yesterday its earlier caution was driven by a poor summer particularly in Europe, when it was unclear whether drinking was depressed just by bad weather or by falling consumer confidence.
“If we look now, we had a very good fourth quarter and so overall the business is doing better than we thought at that moment in time,” chief executive Jean-Francois van Boxmeer said.
The company gave no forecast for 2012, beyond saying it expected to grow in emerging markets and boost revenue in developed ones by pushing premium brands.
Marketing costs would be in line with last year, but input costs would rise, it said.
The maker of Europe’s top-selling Heineken lager and Amstel said yesterday 2011 net profit before one-offs rose by 9.2 per cent on a like-for-like basis to €1.58bn (£1.32bn).
In addition, lower interest costs due to cashflow generation and a slightly reduced tax rate helped the bottom line.
Heineken said it had launched a new €500m cost savings plan.