“It’s been a tough market out there, but the encouraging sign is that the overall beer market is growing and that is the first time in 10 years we’ve seen any growth,” said DB’s managing director, Brian Blake, adding that the company expects to boost its EBIT level earnings and sales during the coming fiscal year to the end of September 2003. He also said the company’s market share had remained constant at 35%.
NEW ZEALAND: DB reports flat year-end profit
New Zealand beer group, DB Breweries, reported a full-year net profit of NZ$22.6m. While this figure was well down on last year's profit of NZ58.3m, the previous year had been boosted by one-off gains. Earnings before interest and tax from continuing operations rose by 0.7% to NZ30m while sales grew by 3.2%.