Budweiser beer, cans – illustrative photo.
Brussels – AB InBev, the world's largest brewer, saw its second-quarter gross operating profit (EBITDA) adjusted for extraordinary effects fall by 3.7 percent to $4.9 billion (107.6 billion CZK). This was due to the development of exchange rates and higher costs of raw materials and advertising. But sales increased thanks to interest in more expensive beer brands and price increases. The company announced this in a statement today.
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Sales rose two percent year-on-year to $15.1 billion. In organic terms, i.e. without including the effect of changes in exchange rates and new purchases and sales of assets, they rose by seven percent. However, the sales volume decreased by 1.4 percent, of which the beer sales volume decreased by 1.8 percent. Sales in North America also declined, but the decline was offset by growth in other regions.
U.S. sales and profit fell in the second quarter due to a boycott of the Bud Light brand by consumers outraged by the company's collaboration with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney . Sales in the US, the brewer's biggest market, fell 10.5 percent and EBITDA fell 28.2 percent in the quarter.
AB InBev confirmed its previous forecast for EBITDA to rise by four to eight percent. Analysts expect growth of 5.2 percent.
The AB InBev group was formed in 2008, when the Belgian brewer InBev took over the American competitor Anheuser-Busch for $52 billion. In 2016, the group bought its biggest rival SABMiller for about 100 billion dollars. It produces roughly a quarter of all beer worldwide.
Among the brands of the AB InBev group are, for example, Budweiser, Beck's, Corona and Stella Artois. In the Czech Republic, the company owns the Samson brewery in České Budějovice.
