Carlsberg has grown its full-year sales and profits, despite volumes declining in two of its three major markets.
Organic sales revenue at the brewer grew by 2.4% to 75bn Danish krone (£8.2bn) in the year ended 31 December, driven by organic volume growth of 0.4% and a 2% uplift in revenue per hectolitre sold.
There was a significant slowdown in the second half of the year, however, where sales growth plateaued – from the 3.9% increase reported in H1 – to just 0.7%.
Organic operating profits, meanwhile, grew 6% to 11.4bn Danish krone (£1.3bn), falling short of analysts consensus of 11.5bn Danish krone. Operating profit/hl increased organically by 5%.
The brewer attributed the growth to higher revenues/hl and a 1% decline in its cost of sales/hl, more than offsetting “continued salary inflation, higher packaging costs and increasing environmental fees”.
Beer volumes grew organically by 0.2% over the full year, despite a 1.7% fall in H2. This was due to “solid growth” in Central & Eastern Europe and India (CEEI) offsetting declines seen in in both Western Europe (–1.8%) and Asia (–1%), Carlsberg said.
Other beverage volumes grew organically by 1.6%, “mainly driven by carbonated soft drinks in Sweden, Finland and Laos, energy drinks in CEEI and ‘beyond beer’ products in China and Ukraine”, it added.
In the UK, Carlsberg said volumes remained flat over the year “in a slightly declining market”. Its flagship namesake Carlsberg brand grew value by “mid-single-digit percentages” while Poretti and Brooklyn delivered double-digit growth.
The acquisition of Britvic, which completed last month, was expected to deliver operating profits of £250m in 2025, flat on those reported by the soft drinks supplier in the year to 30 September 2024.
This would be “driven by underlying business growth and initial cost synergies” and offset by additional investments, write-offs, accounting differences and purchase price allocation adjustments, Carlsberg said.
Integration costs for the Britvic business were expected to be around £83m, realised between 2025-2029, it added.
Looking ahead, Carlsberg said it was forecasting organic operating profit growth of 1%-5% in FY2025, down from the 6% it had previously forecast.
The loss of the licence to produce and sell the San Miguel brand from January 2025 was expected to have a 2-3 percentage point negative impact on organic operating profit growth next year, it said.
“Given the challenging environment in some of our major markets, which impacted the volume development, we’re satisfied with our solid 2024 results,” said Carlsberg CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen. “The commitment and passion of our people and the resilience of our business enabled us to deliver top-line growth, increase commercial investments and achieve organic operating profit growth at the high end of our guidance, which we upgraded in August.”
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