AB InBev cannot live up to expectations

Lower volumes and profits

Last year’s numbers are hardly comparable to this year’s, and the Belgian-Brazilian beer brewer also states that the economic situation was not optimal in several markets. Another reason of the disappointing numbers was the bad weather in the United States and China, the Belgians stated.

The company sold 116.8 million hectoliters in the second quarter, considerably lower than the 119 million hectoliters from last year. Turnover reached 11.1 billion dollars (10 billion euro), way below the 12.2 billion dollars from a year ago. Company profit also dipped, from 2.6 billion dollars to 1.98 billion dollars (1.8 billion euro).

Drop in US and South America

Despite positive signals from that market, North American turnover dropped 1.1 % as the Budweiser brand struggled to boost its market share. South American volumes dropped 8.6 %, which is not surprising as Brazil hosted the World Cup football last year – boosting sales considerably. AB InBev did reveal that the lack of such an event only accounted for 5.5 % of the drop, with the remaining 3.1 % blamed on the weak economic situation.

Despite the disappointing numbers, AB InBev stands firm at its full-year forecast and it expects better results for the remainder of 2015. “We have started our second half of the year with plenty of brand dynamism and commercial activity and we therefore expect the turnover growth to speed up towards the end of the year, compared to the first half of 2015”, the world’s biggest brewer said.