The world’s second largest brewer has said that it has had a “strong” five-month period to 31 August 2003, with the European, South African and Africa and Asian businesses each delivering good earnings growth. However, the US Miller division continued to struggle.
“In North and Central America the performance of our businesses has been in line with our previously announced expectations,” the company said in a trading update.
Organic volume growth in lager was almost 4% across the group. In Europe, organic volume was up 8% driven primarily by a strong performance in Russia and higher sales in Czech compared to the same period in the prior year, when sales were affected by the severe flooding. Satisfactory progress is being made with integrating the recent Peroni acquisition into the Group.
The Africa and Asia business delivered a 3% increase in organic volume growth over the prior year despite the negative impact of SARS in China and economic turmoil in Zimbabwe. The East
African restructuring initiatives have enhanced the performance of our operation in this region.
In South Africa, beer volumes have continued to grow, and for the period to mid-September were up by 2.5% on the prior year after adjusting for the timing of Easter. Beer continues to gain share of the total liquor market at the expense of wine and spirits.
However, in North America, Miller Brewing Company volumes trended lower for the period to mid
September, in line with expectations, being down some 4.5%. Further restructuring initiatives were commenced during the period, which will assist the cost base going forward.
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