The leading UK brewer, Scottish & Newcastle (S&N), reported a pre-tax profit for the year to April 27 of £507.3m, up 15% from £442.3m the year before. The result was marginally ahead of analysts’ forecasts.
Net profit at the brewer rose by 20% to £383m while turnover increased from £4.12 billion to £4.54 billion. Operating profit increased by 22% to £657.9m.
S&N said sales growth in western Europe had been adversely affected by low economic growth, poor summer weather and lower tourist numbers.
But S&N’s CEO, Tony Froggatt, said he was encouraged by recent trading. “We are encouraged by the last two months, but two swallows don’t make a summer and we are being slightly cautious as it is a tough market out there,” Froggatt said.
Beer sales in France were down by 8% in volume terms, while Belgian sales were down by 2.9%. Volumes in the UK grew marginally by 0.5%. The company said sales in Russia, the Ukraine and the Baltic states, where S&N operates through its joint venture with Carlsberg, Baltic Beverage Holding (BBH), had shown strong growth in the last couple of months.
In the year to December 2002, BBH increased total volume sales across all its operations by 22% to 29.1m hectolitres. Turnover was up in that period by 27% and operating profit rose by 17%. In the first four months of 2003, BBH’s beer volumes rose by 1% in spite of the coldest winter in sixty years. S&N said it remained optimistic about the long term potential of this region.
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