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Heineken has increased organic revenues by 3.5% to €20.5bn (£15.9bn) as its focus on premium brands paid off, with Desperados, Affligem and Sol Premium all recording double-digit growth.

Consolidated beer volume was up 2.3% in 2015, with positive growth in the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe offsetting weaker volume in Africa, Middle East and Eastern Europe. The premium segment recorded volume growth of 3.5%, with brand’s volume jumping by double digits in Brazil, the UK, South Africa, and Mexico.

Underlying net profits for the year at the brewer rose 16% to €2.12bn (£1.65bn).

CEO and chairman Jean-François van Boxmeer said: “Our strong performance in 2015 reflects the successful execution of our strategy, as well as the relevance of our unique geographic diversity and our portfolio of premium brands, led by Heineken.

“In 2015, top and bottom-line growth was supported by increased investment in our brands, sustained innovation, and cost efficiencies.”

He added that despite further volatility in emerging markets, coupled with deflationary pressures, Heineken was confident of recording growth in sales and profits in 2016.

Heineken shares are trading 0.5% up at €75.58 so far this morning.

Morning update

A quick glance at the Ocado annual report for 2015, out this morning, shows the total remuneration packages for CEO Tim Steiner and CFO Duncan Tatton-Brown fell in the year as they received less share awards. However, their cash payments both went up, with Steiner receiving £1.1m, compared with £980,000 in the previous year, and Tatton-Brown getting £597,000, compared with £541,000.

Real Good Food (RGD) has acquired a hand-made frozen desserts business for £1.8m to add to its Haydens Bakery subsidiary. Chantilly Patisserie, based in Devon, employs about 40 staff and supplies the foodservice sector, with customers such as Marston’s Brewery, Warner Leisure, Brakes and Country Range. Real Good Food executive chairman Pieter Totté said: “The acquisition of Chantilly opens up a new channel for us as they have already impressively established themselves as a supplier of quality products to the important and growing foodservice sector. We will continue to identify and complete bolt-on acquisitions as we seek to reach greater scale within our three pillar markets of cake decoration, food ingredients and in this case premium bakery.”

Combined retail sales at Green King were up 67% after 40 weeks to 7 February, benefitting from a 33-week contribution from the acquired Spirit pubco business and 6% growth at Greene King. The group said in the trading statement that Greene King retail like-for-like sales were up 2.2% in the period and Spirit managed LFL sales were up 1.1%. In the two Christmas weeks, LFL sales grew 5% in Greene King and 5.2% in Spirit. CEO Rooney Anand said: “This was another strong performance, with all divisions trading well during the important festive period, and record trading on Christmas Day. The latest Greene King Leisure Spend Tracker shows that, despite varying their choices when eating out, pubs were a major destination for customers.”

The FTSE 100 has opened an encouraging 47 points up this morning (0.8%) to 5,678.9 to stop the rot, with Tesco rocketing up 3.7% to 180.3p and Sainsbury’s making back some ground, climbing 1% to 244.9p.

Yesterday in the City

The FTSE 100 failed once again to make a recovery as worldwide stocks continued their worrying decline. London’s blue-chip index fell another 0.9% to 5,639 points – a three-year low – on the back of volatility in the US and Japan.

Grocery stocks once again took a battering, with Real Good Food (RGD) down by 4.8% to 40p; McColl’s (MCLS) falling 5% to 133p; stevia producer PureCircle (PURE) stalling 5% to 375.3p. AG Barr (BAG), PZ Cussons (PZC), Hilton Food Group (HFG) were all down more than 3%, and Premier Foods (PFD), Finsbury Food (FIF) and McBride (MCB) all fell more than 2%.

The listed grocers had a mixed day, with Tesco (TSCO) coming off best, with its stock up 1% to 174.4p as the supermarket enjoyed its best Kantar market share data for some time. Sainsbury’s (SBRY), which was again the only one of the big four to register a rise in sales in the past 12 weeks, nudged ahead slightly (0.1%) to 243.1p. Morrisons (MRW) fell 0.8% to 172.3p as its sales declined 2.2%.

Ocado (OCDO) endured another miserable day, to close 3.3% down at 232.5p.

WH Smith escaped the day unscathed – after heavy falls on Monday – to finish 1.8% up at 1,738p. B&M European Value Retail (BME) also rose 2.3% to 280p and Marks & Spencer managed a rise of 1.3% to 412.4p.

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